WITHDRAWN 


OF  TUB 


West  Bridgewater  PubHc  Library, 

!      The  Library  shall  be  open  on  Saturday  of  each 


'tubooks  ,uust  b,  return,,!  to  the  Uhmry,  for 
?hv  the  Directors  on  or  brfbro  the  llrrf 
lt,  n 


.   ,00*  wh.  *K-  not 


HISTORIC  AMERICANS. 


BY 


THEODORE    PARKER 


BOSTON: 

K    B.     F-T 

1878. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1870,  by 

LYDIA  D,  PARKER, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


THESE  lectures  were  prepared  in  1858,  for  the  Frater- 
nity Course,  which  had  been  instituted  that  year.  They 
were  carefully  elaborated,  being  written  out  in  full,  and 
partly  rewritten  with  a  view  to  publication.  The  lecture 
on  Franklin  was  written  over  twice,*  —  three  times,  in 
fact,  though  the  last  reproduction  was  rendered  neces- 
sary by  the  loss  of  the  original  manuscript.  But  three 
of  them,  however,  were  delivered  in  Tremont  Temple ; 
and  these  were  more  than  should  have  been  attempted, 
for  Mr.  Parker  was  already  so  weak  in  this  last  autumn 
of  his  public  service,  that  he  made  his  way  to  the  hall 
with  difficulty,  and  barely  sustained  himself  through  the 
effort  he  was  making. 

The  lectures  are  printed  from  faithful  copies  of  his 
manuscript,  with  no  more  correction  than  was  actually 
required  by  occasional  omissions  that  had  to  be  made 

*  Weiss's  Life  of  Parker,  i.  p.  432. 

(3) 


4  PREFACE. 

good,  by  very  infrequent  defects  that  were  easily  repaired, 
or  by  misplaced  references,  which,  it  is  needless  to  say, 
were  here,  as  elsewhere  in  Mr.  Parker's  writings,  exceed- 
ingly few. 

The  lectures  were  prepared  at  a  time  when  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation  was  at  its  height ;  when,  in  Mr.  Parker's 
judgment,  it  distinctly  menaced  war.  The  subject  natu- 
rally occupies  a  large  space  in  the  biographies  ;  indeed,  it 
furnished,  probably,  one  of  the  motives  for  preparing 
them.  That  issue  is  dead.  The  war,  to  which  the  evil 
succumbed,  broke  out  almost  immediately  after  his  de- 
cease, and  accomplished  by  force  what  he  hoped  might 
be  accomplished  peacefully.  A  few  passages,  containing 
allusions  to  the  ethics  and  politics  of  that  by-gone  epoch, 
would  not  be  penned  to-day  ;  but  none  will  be  sorry  to 
read  them  who  can  weigh  their  importance  as  contribu- 
tions to  history,  or  can  estimate  their  value  as  illustra- 
tions of  character. 

Mr.  Parker's  religious  opinions  were  too  vital  to  him 
.  to  be  excluded  from  any  kind  of  discourse,  and  the 
reader  of  this  volume  may  occasionally  come  across  a 
phrase,  or  possibly  a  sentence,  that  will  seem  intrusive 
and  objectionable.  But  such  sentences  and  phrases  are 
singularly  rare,  scarcely  more  frequent  than  the  subject 


PREFACE.  5 

demanded,  no  more  frequent  than  was  demanded  by  his 
favorite  method  of  treatment. 

That  method  is  simple,  clear,  and  exhaustive.  Mr. 
Parker  never  wrote  without  a  direct  purpose,  and  the 
purpose  was  always  serious  enough  to  engage  the  ear- 
nest exercise  of  his  ability.  When  he  selected  the  char- 
acters of  Historic  Americans  as  themes  for  the  lyceum, 
his  object  was  not,  as  with  most  lecturers  it  is,  to  amuse 
an  audience  for  an  hour ;  it  was  not  to  convey  biographi- 
cal information  in  a  popular  form ;  it  was  not  to  "do 
good  "  in  a  general  sense  ;  much  less  was  it,  in  a  specific 
sense,  to  do  evil  by  affronting  the  reverence  of  his  con- 
temporaries, or  diminishing  the  reputation  of  eminent 
men  whom  people  far  and  near  had  lifted  to  a  pedestal  of 
honor.  His  design  was  to  trace  back  to  their  sources,  in 
the  creative  minds  of  the  nation,  the  principles  that  have 
exerted  a  controlling  influence  in  the  nation's  history, 
and  are  still  active  in  the  institutions  and  the  politics  of 
the  hour.  He  would  discuss  great  issues  in  a  concrete 
form,  showing  how  they  were  associated  with  character 
for  better  or  worse. 

A  further  intention  he  doubtless  had,  —  such  an  inten- 
tion as  Mr.  Everett  had  in  the  delivery  of  his  oration  on 
Washington,  —  to  bring  the  power  of  great  historic 


6  PREFACE. 

names  to  bear  on  the  minds  of  his  contemporaries,  to 
clear  their  conceptions,  confirm  their  belief,  or  tone  up 
their  courage.  Grand  examples  are  more  convincing 
than  ordinary  precepts,  and  Mr.  Parker  was  intensely 
persuaded  that  our  grandest  examples  were  on  the  side 
that  most  needed  strengthening. 

But  no  side  views  of  this  sort  tempted  him  to  swerve 
a  hair's  breadth  from  the  sternest  loyalty  to  the  truth. 
He  made  the  truth  serve  his  purpose  when  he  could ; 
but  it  was  not  his  way  to  manufacture  truth  to  suit  his 
purpose,  nor  was  it  his  way  to  judge  truth  by  its  utility 
for  his  private  or  public  ends.  The  truth  he  would  have 
at  any  rate,  whether  it  would  serve  him  or  no.  It  would 
serve  itself,  which  was  better.  He  went  always  to  ori- 
ginal sources ;  but  not  content  with  that,  he  made  effort 
to  purge  his  own  mental  vision,  in  order  that  no  discol- 
oring or  distorting  feelings  might  make  the  truth  seem 
to  him  other  than  it  actually  was.  In  all  biographical 
studies  his  conscientiousness  was  a  wonder.  He  laid  on 
himself  prodigious  labor  to  satisfy  it.  Both  hate  and 
love  were  warned  away  from  the  canvas  on  which  he  was 
painting  a  character. 

These  four  portraits  are  as  faithful  as  he,  by  any  labor 
of  his,  could  make  them.  Those  who  question  his  truth- 


PREFACE.  7 

fulness,  must  first  revise  their  own.  If  in  some  respects 
the  portraits  look  unlike  the  "  counterfeit  presentments  " 
that  are  shown  in  the  print  shops,  it  must  not  be  hastily 
concluded  that  he  has  intentionally  disfigured  them.  He 
may  possibly  have  restored  features  and  lines  which  care- 
less or  too  flattering  copyists  have  misdrawn. 

It  will  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  correct  the  impres- 
sion that  Mr.  Parker  was  a  self-constituted  image-breaker, 
who  made  iconoclasm  a  business,  and  delighted  in  shatter- 
ing great  reputations,  as  Cromwell's  troopers  did  in  muti- 
lating statues  of  the  saints.  Of  all  the  errors  in  regard 
to  Mr.  Parker,  none  are  more  completely  errors  than  this, 
though  others  are  more  difficult  to  account  for.  In  an 
age  of  false  reverence,  adulation,  and  sentimentalism,  the 
man  who  tells  the  unadorned  truth  is  a  destroyer  of  idols. 
Such  was  Mr.  Parker :  an  uncompromising  idol-breaker. 
But  he  never  broke  the  idol  save  with  an  intention  to  re- 
veal the  man.  To  know  a  character  was,  in  his  judgment, 
better  than  to  worship  a  simulacrum.  If  any  readers  of 
this  volume  feel  a  passing  emotion  of  regret  as  a  cher- 
ished illusion  here  and  there  fades,  they  will  rejoice  at 
last  in  the  solid  human  qualities  that  take  their  place,  — 
the  grand  columns  of  virtue  which  belong  to  humanity, 
and  support  the  State. 


8  PREFACE. 

The  truest  compliment  that  can  be  paid  to  grand  men, 
consists  in  the  fearless  judgment  of  their  qualities,  under 
the  conviction  that  they  will  not  only  abide  the  test,  but 
will  be  purified  by  it.  What  fancy  loses  reason  gains. 
Were  great  men  useful  as  ornaments  in  parlors,  or  as 
decorations  in  public  halls,  he  would  be  their  best  delinea- 
tor who  set  them  off  with  most  imposing  effect.  But 
so  long  as  great  men  are  needed  as  exemplars,  he  will 
have  a  claim  on  the  world's  gratitude  who  shows  pre- 
cisely what  they  exemplify.  It  is  as  important  that  we 
should  know  their  foibles,  as  that  we  should  know  their 
strong  points.  The  warning  of  their  vices,  if  they  had 
them,  may  be  as  useful  as  the  encouragement  of  their 
virtues.  What  they  seem  to  lose  in  being  made  to  ap- 
pear human,  is  more  than  compensated  by  the  sympathy 
with  their  noblest  brothers,  which  all  men  need  to  feel. 

These  lectures  are  published  as  they  were  written,  in 
the  hope  of  throwing  light,  not  merely  upon  four  majes- 
tic personages,  but  upon  certain  cardinal  principles,  far 
more  majestic  and  far  more  worthy  of  veneration  than 

they. 

0.  B.  F. 


CONTENTS. 


PAOM 

•  FRANKLIN.      ....       '.        .        .      13 

-WASHINGTON 73 

-JOHN  ADAMS.        .        .        .        .        .        .147 

^THOMAS  JEFFERSON 260 


FRANKLIN. 


(ID 


FRANKLIN. 


AT  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  a  hardy  man, 
Josiah  Franklin  by  name,  born  in  England,  the  son 
of  a  blacksmith,  himself  a  tallow-chandler,  was  liv- 
ing in  a  small  house,  in  an  obscure  way,  in  Boston, 
then  a  colonial  town  of  eight  or  ten  thousand  inhab- 
itants, in  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

On  the  17th  of  January,  at  the  Blue  Ball,  in 
Hanover  Street,  1706,*  his  tenth  son  was  born  into 

*  See  Drake's  History  and  Antiquities  of  Boston,  page  492. 
"  Franklin  himself  told  Mrs.  Hannah  M.  Crocker,  as  she  told  me 
in  1828,  that  he  was  born  at  the  sign  of  the  Blue  Ball,  on  the 
corner  of  Union  and  Hanover  Streets,  where  his  father  then  lived 
and  carried  on  his  business."  Page  638,  ib.  "  Mrs.  Harriett  A.  T. 
Lewis,  an  intelligent  and  well-informed  lady,  well  remembers  hear- 
ing his  birthplace  spoken  of  by  old  persons  when  she  was  young,  as 
a  matter  familiarly  known  to  them ;  namely,  that  Franklin  was  born 
at  the  sign  of  the  Blue  Ball  in  Hanover  Street,  as  has  been  stated." 
It  is  important  to  note  these  authorities,  because  a  building  in  Milk 
Street  is  marked  and  is  popularly  known  as  "The  Birthplace  of 
Franklin."  There  were  other  Franklins  in  Boston  before  Josiah. 
Sparks's  Franklin,  i.  539;  Mass.  llec.  ii.  p.  71,  iii.  p.  238. 


14  FRANKLIN. 

this  world,  and,  it  being  Sunday,  he  was  taken  to 
the  meeting-house  and  publicly  baptized  the  same 
day,  according  to  the  common  custom  of  those 
times ;  for  then  it  was  taught  by  the  ministers  that 
the  devil  watched  about  every  cradle,  ready  to  seize 
the  souls  of  all  babies  dying  before  they  got  ecclesi- 
astically sprinkled  with  water,  and  that  the  ceremony 
of  baptism  would  save  them  from  his  clutches  until 
they  could  discern  good  from  evil.  The  minister 
had  a  wig  on  his  head,  and  Geneva  bands  ^>out  his 
neck.  There  was  no  Bible  upon  the  desk  of  the 
pulpit,  and  he  thought  it  a  sin  to  repeat  the  Lord's 
Prayer.  When  he  said,  w  This  child's  name  is  Ben- 
jamin," how  all  those  grim  puritanic  Bostouians 
looked  on  the  tenth  boy,  the  fifteenth  child  of  the 
tallow-chandler !  and  prudent  aunts  doubtless  won- 
dered what  he  would  do  with  such  a  family  in  those 
hard  times.  That  little  baby,  humbly  cradled,  has 
turned  out  to  be  the  greatest  man  that  America  ever 
bore  in  her  bosom  or  set  eyes  upon.  Beyond  all 
question,  as  I  think,  Benjamin  Franklin  had  the 
largest  mind  that  has  shone  this  side  of  the  sea, 
—  widest  in  its  comprehension,  most  deep-looking, 
thoughtful,  far-seeing,  of  course  the  most  original 
and  creative  child  of  the  New  World. 

For  the  last  four  generations  no  man  has  shed 
such  copious  good  influence  on  America ;  none 
added  so  much  new  truth  to  the  popular  knowl- 


FRANKLIN.  15 

edge  V  none  has  so  skilfully  organized  its  ideas 
into  institutions ;  none  has  so  powerfully  and  wise- 
ly directed  the  nation's  conduct,  and  advanced  its 
welfare  in  so  many  respects.  No  man  now  has  so 
strong  a  hold  on  the  habits  and  manners  of  the 
people.  Franklin  comes  home  to  the  individual 
business  of  practical  men  in  their  daily  life.  His 
homely  sayings  are  the  PROVERBS  OF  THE  PEOPLE 
now.  Much  of  our  social  machinery,  academic, 
literary,  philosophic,  is  of  his  device. 

WASHINGTON  is  a  name  that  politicians  snare  the 
people  with,  that  eulogists  hold  up  to  the  world  as 
without  spot  or  blemish,  and  orators  exhibit  in 
order  to  make  sure  of  rounds  of  applause.  When 
I  hear  a  politician  refer  to  Washington  I  always 
expect  slavery  will  follow  next,  though  Washing- 
ton hated  slavery  himself.  His  great  merit  was 
integrity  —  a  virtue  which  he  possessed  in  the  heroic 
degree.  His  function  was  to  create  an  army,  and 
administer  the  government,  both  of  which  he  did 
with  self-devotion,  ability,  and  faithfulness.  This 
it  is  that  makes  him  such  a  rare  example  in  the 
history  of  mankind.  His  is  a  name  that  will  be 
honored  as  long  as  men  remember  great  deeds,  or 
are  proud  and  emulous  of  great  virtue. 

Let  us  now  look  this  extraordinary  BENJAMIN 
FRANKLIN  in  the  face,  and  see  what  he  was. 


16  FRANKLIN. 

Here  is  a  sketch  which  will  show  the  geography 
and  chronology  of  his  life,  a  chart  of  his  relation 
to  time  and  space :  — 

He  was  born  in  Boston,  on  the  17th  of  January, 
1706.  Thence  he  ran  away  in  the  autumn  of  1723, 
and  in  October  found  himself  a  new  home  in  Phila- 
delphia, where  he  made  his  first  meal  in  the  street 
one  Sunday  morning  from  a  draught  of  Delaware 
Ri^r  water  and  a  pennyworth  of  bread,  giving 
twopence  worth  to  a  poor  woman.*  Such  was 
his  first  breakfast  and  his  earliest  charity  in  his 
adopted  state.  Here  he  worked  as  a  journeyman 
printer.  Deceived  by  Keith,  the  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania,  he  went  to  England,  landing  there 
the  24th  of  December,  1724.  He  followed  his 
trade  in  London  for  about  two  years.  He  re- 
turned to  Philadelphia  on  the  llth  of  October, 
1726,  and  resumed  his  business  as  printer,  enter- 
ing also  into  politics ;  or,  rather,  I  should  say,  he 
became  a  Statesman,  for  he  was  never  a  politician, 
but  a  Statesman  from  the  beginning,  who  never 
solicited  an  office,  nor  used  any  indirection  to 
retain  one  when  it  was  in  his  possession.  As 
agent  for  Pennsylvania,  he  again  went  to  England 
in  October,  1757,  and  returned  to  Philadelphia  in 
November,  1762.  But  he  went  back  to  England 

*  Sydney  Smith  says  that  "  there  would  be  many  more  good 
Samaritans  if  it  were  not  for  the  twopence  and  the  oil." 


FRANKLIN.  17 

in  December,  1764,  as  agent  for  several  colonies, 
and  returned  thence,  5th  of  May,  1775.  He  was 
sent  as  minister  to  France  by  the  revolted  colonies 
in  1776,  whence,  on  September  14,  1785,  he  returned 
to  Philadelphia,  which  he  never  left  again.  He  was 
President,  or  what  we  should  now  call  Governor,  of 
Pennsylvania,  from  October,  1785,  to  October,  1788, 
and  was  also  a  member  of  the  Federal  Convention, 
which  made  the  Constitution  of  the  United  Stages. 
He  died  on  the  17th  April,  1790,  aged  eighty-four 
years  and  three  months,  and  his  body  lies  buried  at 
Philadelphia,  in  the  corner  of  the  churchyard,  close 
to  the  Quaker  meeting-house. 

Franklin  spent  a  little  more  than  twenty-six  years 
in  Europe,  more  than  twenty-three  of  them  in  vari- 
ous diplomatic  services.  He  lived  in  Boston  nearly 
eighteen  years,  was  a  citizen  of  Philadelphia  more 
than  sixty-six  years,  held  his  first  public  office  in 
1736,  and  left  office  altogether  in  1788,  serving  his 
state  and  nation  in  many  public  trusts  something 
about  fifty-two  years.  He  was  married  in  1730,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-four.  His  wife  died  in  1774.  He 
was  forty-four  years  a  husband,  though  for  twenty- 
three  years  he  was  in  Europe  for  the  most  part, 
while  she  remained  wholly  in  Pennsylvania.  He 
left  two  children, —  an  illegitimate  son,  named 
William  Franklin,  who  afterwards  became  Governor 
of  the  colony  of  New  Jersey,  and  was  a  tory,  —  and  a 
2 


18  FRANKLIN. 

legitimate  daughter,  Sarah.  Both  of  them  married, 
and  became  parents  long  before  his  death.  A  few 
of  his  descendants  are  still  living,  though  none,  I 
think,  bear  the  name  of  Franklin.  Such  is  the 
material  basis  of  facts  and  of  dates. 

To  understand  the  man,  look  at  the  most  impor- 
tant scenes  in  his  public  life. 

I.  A  stout,  hardy-looking  boy,  with  a  great  head, 
^  ,  twelve  or  fourteen  years  old,  clad  in  knee  breeches, 
with  buckles  in  his  shoes,  is  selling  ballads  in  the 
streets  of  Boston,  broadsides  printed  on  a  single 
sheet,  containing  what  were  called  "  VARSES  "  in 
those  times.  One  is  "  The  Lighthouse  Tragedy," 
giving  an  account  of  the  shipwreck  of  Captain 
Worthilake  and  his  two  daughters,  and  the  other, 
"  The  Capture  of  Blackbeard  the  Pirate."  He 
wrote  the  "varses"  himself,  and  printed  them  also. 
"  Wretched  stuff,"  he  says,  they  were :  no  doubt 
of  it.  From  eight  to  nine  he  has  been  in  the 
grammar  school,  but  less  than  a  year ;  then  in  an- 
other public  school  for  reading  and  writing  for  less 
than  another  year  —  a  short  time,  truly ;  but  he  made 
rapid  progress,  yet  "failed  entirely  in  arithmetic." 
In  school  he  studied  hard.  Out  of  doors  he  was  a 
wild  boy,  — "a  leader  among  the  boys,"  — and  some- 
times "  led  them  into  scrapes."  After  the  age  of  ten 
he  never  saw  the  inside  of  a  school-house  as  a  pupil. 


FRANKLIN.  19 

Harvard  College  was  near  at  home,  and  the  Boston 
Latin  School  close  by,  its  little  bell  tinkling  to  him 
in  his  father's  shop ;  but  poverty  shut  the  door  in  his 
face.  Yet  he  would  learn.  He  might  be  born  poor, 
he  could  not  be  kept  ignorant.  His  birth  to  genius 
more  than  made  up  for  want  of  academic  breeding. 
He  had  educational  helps  at-  home.  His  father,  a 
man  of  middle  stature,  well  set,  and  very  strong, 
was  not  only  handy  with  tools,  but  "could  draw 
prettily."  He  played  on  the  violin,  and  sang  withal. 
Bather  an  austere  Calvinist,  a  man  of  "  sound  under- 
standing." Careless  about  food  at  table,  he  talked 
of  what  was  "good,  just,  and  prudent  in  the  conduct 
of  life,"  and  not  of  the  baked  beans,  the  corned  beef, 
or  the  rye  and  Indian  bread.  The  father  had  a  few 
books:  Plutarch's  "Lives,"  "Essays  to  do  Good," 
by  Cotton  Mather,  a  famous  minister  at  the  "  North 
End  "  of  Boston,  and  besides,  volumes  of  theological 
controversy  and  of  New  England  divinity.  Benja- 
min added  some  books  of  tp's  own :  Bunyan,  Bur- 
ton's Historical  Collection ;  in  all  forty  little  volumes. 
He  was  fond  of  reading,  and  early  took  to  writing 
poetry.  Two  children  were  born  after  him,  making 
the  family  of  the  patriarchal  number  of  seventeen. 
The  father  and  mother  *  were  never  sick.  They  died 

*  His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Peter  Folger,  "  a  godly  and 
learned  Englishman,  of  excellent  common  sense,  and  well  educated 
in  surveying,"  who  had  settled  in  Nantucket.  This  Peter  Folger 
came  out  to  America  with  the  famous  Hugh  Peters  in  1G35,  and  with 


20  FRANKLIN. 

of  .old  age,  as  we  ought ;  he  at  eighty-nine,  she  at 
eighty-five.  The  apple  mellowed  or  shrivelled  up, 
and. then  fell  off.  It  did  not  rot  inwardly.  There 
was  an  uncle  Benjamin,  like  the  nephew  in  many 
things,  who  lived  the  other  side  of  the  water  for  a 
long  time,  and  subsequently  came  here.  Now  and 
then  he  shot  a  letter  to  the  hopeful  Benjamin  this 
side  the  sea,  poetical  sometimes,  whereof  some  frag- 
ments still  remain ;  one  addressed  to  him  when  he 
was  four  years  old,  the  other  when  he  was  seven- 
teen ;  one  warning  him  against  military  propensities, 
which  the  baby  in  long  clothes  was  thought  to  have 
displayed,  the  other  encouraging  the  poetic  aspira- 
tion. In  fact,  the  uncle  Benjamin,  like  the  nephew, 
had  an  inclination  for  "varses,"  and  the  specimens 
of  his  which  are  extant  are  not  so  bad  as  some 
"varses"  that  have  been  written  since  his  time. 
When  the  nephew  was  seven  years  old,  the  uncle, 
hearing  of  his  poetic  fervor,  wrote, — 

"  'Tis  time  for  me  to  throw  aside  my  pen 
When  hanging  sleeves  read,  write,  and  rhyme  like  men. 
This  forward  spring  foretells  a  plenteous  crop, 
For  if  the  bud  bear  grain,  what  will  the  top !  "  * 


Mary  Morrell,  who  was  a  servant  girl  of  Hugh  Peters.  Folger 
bought  Mary  of  Peters  for  twenty  pounds,  ,and  she  became  Ins 
wife.  So  the  grandmother  of  Dr.  Franklin  was  bought  for  twenty 
pounds  out  of  white  slavery.  This  on  the  authority  of  F.  C.  San- 
ford,  of  Nantucket. 

*  Sparks's  Franklin,  541.     Also  MS.  vol.  of  Mr.  Emmonds. 


FRANKLIN.  21 

Benjamin  had  glimpses  of  academic  culture,  for  the 
father  wished  to  make  him  a  minister,  thus  conse- 
crating "the  tithe  of  his  sons."  But  poverty  forbade. 
The  boy  must  work.  So,  when  he  was  ten  years  old, 
the  tallow-chandler  tried  him  with  the  dips  and 
moulds  of  his  own  shop  at  the  sign  of  the  Blue  Ball, 
then  with  the  cutlery  of  his  cousin  Samuel,  "bred  to 
that  trade  in  London ; "  but  neither  business  suited 
him.  These  experiments  continued  for  two  years. 
Then,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  he  was  apprenticed  to  his 
brother  James,  a  printer,  afterwards  an  editor  of  the 
"NEW  ENGLAND  COURANT,"  the  fourth  newspaper 
published  in  America.  James  Franklin  was  a  man 
not  altogether  respectable.  During  this  apprentice- 
ship Mr.  Matthew  Adams,  a  merchant,  often  lent 
Benjamin  books,  which  he  sat  up  the  greater  part 
of  the  night  to  read. 

This  is  the  boy  who  is  hawking  his  own  ballads 
about  the  streets  of  the  little  colonial  town  of  Bos- 
ton. This  is  the  first  scene  in  his  public  life.  There 
is  nothing  remarkable  in  it,  nothing  very  promising. 
He  makes  no  public  appearance  in  Boston  again. 

• 

II.  Next,  in  1727,  Franklin  is  a  master  printer  on 
his  ,own  account,  in  his  own  hired  house  or  shop  in 
Market  Street,  Philadelphia.  A  white  boaroV  over 
the  door  tells  the  world  that  "Benjamin  Franklin, 
Printer,"  may  be  found  there.  He  has  just  printed 


22  FRANKLIN. 

his  first  job  for  five  shillings.  There  are  men  now 
alive  in  1860  who  remember  the  sign  right  well.  Since 
he  left  Massachusetts  his  life  has  been  quite  event- 
ful. In  Boston  he  wrote  for  his  brother's  newspaper, 
secretly  at  first,  and  afterwards  openly.  He  was 
nominally  its  editor,  and  perhaps  also  its  poet.  He 
quarrelled  with  his  brother  James,  ran  away  to  Phil- 
adelphia, and  has  had  a  hard  and  tempestuous  time  of 
it.  He  did  well  as  a  journeyman  printer  in  Phila- 
delphia during  his  nineteenth  and  twentieth  years. 
But  the  governor  took  notice  of  him,  swindled  him, 
and  sent  him  to  England  on  a  fool's  errand.  Wher- 
ever he  fell  he  touched  ground  with  his  feet.  In 
London  he  followed  his  craft  nearly  two  years, 
making  friends  and  foes.  He  was  a  wild  young 
man,  and  led  himself  into  dissipations  and  difficul- 
ties. He  deserted  Miss  Read,  the  young  woman  of 
Philadelphia  to  whom  he  was  betrothed.  He  kept 
low  company  sometimes,  not  only  of  bad  men,  but 
of  evil  women  also,  "spending  a  good  deal  of  his 
earnings  at  plays  and  at  public  amusements."  In 
quite  early  life  vices  of  passion  left  their  stain  on 
him,  which  he  afterwards  took  great  pains  to  wipe 
out.  But  even  now,  at  twenty-one,  he  is  industri- 
ous, temperate,  frugal,  forecasting,  punctual,  and 
that  to  an  extraordinary  degree.  He  works  late 
and  early,  not  disdaining  to  wheel  home  in  a  barrow 
the  paper  he  bought  for  his  trade.  "  He  that  would 


FRANKLIN.  23 

thrive,  must  rise  at  five  : "  he  knew  it  before  he  was 
twenty.  He  had  read  many  books,  nay,  studied 
them ;  the  Spectator,  the  memorable  things  of  Xeno- 
phon,  Cocker's  Arithmetic,  books  on  navigation, 
which  helped  him  to  a  little  geometry,  Locke  on 
the  Understanding,  Shaftesbury,  Collins,  with  the  ec- 
clesiastical replies  to  the  free-thinkers ;  and  in  Lon- 
don he  read  many  works  not  elsewhere  accessible. 
He  wrote,  also,  with  simplicity,  strength,  and  beau- 
ty, having  taken  great  pains  to  acquire  a  neat  and 
easy  style.  There  is  a  diary  of  his,  written  when  he 
was  only  twenty.  He  was  now  twenty-one.  He 
soon  became  editor  of  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette, 
then  bookseller,  then  almanac  maker,  then  postmas- 
ter of  Philadelphia,  continuing  always  his  printing 
trade.  He  had  many  irons  in  the  fire,  yet  not  one 
too  many,  for  he  was  careful  that  none  burned.  He 
became  connected  with  politics,  and  was  on  the  side 
of  the  people,  which  is  not  often  the  popular  side, 
and  is  seldom  counted  respectable.  The  change 
from  the  boy  of  fourteen,  selling  ballads  in  Boston, 
to  the  youth  of  tAventy  one,  printing  Quaker  books, 
or  to  the  mature  man,  printer  and  bookseller,  is 
only  a  natural  development. 

III.  Now  he  is  forty-six  years  old.  In  June, 
1752,  attended  by  his  son  twenty-one  years  old,  he 
is  in  the  fields  near  Philadelphia  as  a  thunder-cloud 


24  FRANKLIN. 

comes  up.  He  hoists  a  kite,  covered  with  a  silk  hand- 
kerchief, an  iron  point  at  its  head.  He  lets  it  fly 
towards  the  cloud.  He  holds  by  a  short  end  of  non- 
conducting silk  the  long  string  of  hemp,  a  conductor 
of  electricity.  An  iron  key  hangs  at  the  joining  of 
the  silk  with  the  hemp.  He  touches  the  key.  The 
lightning  of  heaven  sparkles  in  his  hand.  The 
mystery  is  solved.  The  lightning  of  the  heavens 
and  the  electricity  of  the  chemist's  shop  are  the  same 
thing.  The  difference  is  only  in  quantity ;  in  kind 
they  are  the  same.  An  iron  point  will  attract  the 
lightning.  A  string  of  hemp  or  wire  will  conduct 
it  to  the  ground.  Thunder  has  lost  its  destructive 
terror.  The  greatest  discovery  of  the  century  is 
made,  the  parent  of  many  more  not  dreamed  of  then 
or  yet.  Truly  this  is  a  great  picture. 

Between  Franklin,  the  young  printer  of  twenty- 
one,  and  Franklin,  the  philosopher,  at  forty-six, 
many  events  have  taken  place.  The  obscure  printer  of 
1727  is  now  a  famous  man,  inclining  towards  riches. 
He  has  had  many  social  and  civil  honors.  He  has 
been  justice  of  the  peace  (the  title  then  meant  some- 
thing), afterwards  alderman,  clerk  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, then  member  of  the  Assembly,  then  speaker, 
then  postmaster  of  Philadelphia,  then  Postmaster- 
General  of  all  the  colonies.  His  Almanac  has  made 
him  more  widely  known  than  any  man  in  America ; 
known  to  the  rising  democracy,  respected  and  fol- 


FRANKLIN.  25 

lowed,  too,  by  the  mass  of  the  people.  There  are 
hundreds  of  families,  nay,  thousands,  with  only  two 
books ;  one  the  Bible,  which  they  read  Sundays,  and 
the  other  his  "  Poor  Richard's  Almanac,"  which  they 
read  the  other  six  days  of  the  week ;  and  as  its  daily 
lessons  are  short,  they  are  remembered  forever. 
The  Almanac  seems  to  have  perished  in  our  time.  So 
the  leaves  which  grew  on  the  Charter  Oak,  in  Connec- 
ticut, a  hundred  years  since,  have  all  perished ;  but 
every  crop  of  leaves  left  its  ring  all  round  the  trunk. 
The  Almanac  has  perished,  but  the  wisdom  of  Frank- 
lin still  lives  in  the  consciousness  and  conduct  of  the 
people. 

He  has  put  his  thought  into  Philadelphia,  and  in 
twenty-five  years  organized  its  municipal  affairs,  its 
education  and  charity,  more  wisely  than  any  city  in 
the  world.  He  is  in  correspondence  with  the  most 
eminent  men  of  science  in  America,  and  has  a  name 
also  with  scientific  men  in  England,  France,  Ger- 
many, and  Italy.  After  the  age  of  twenty-one  he 
studied  and  learned  Latin,  French,  Italian,  Spanish, 
German,  and  very  soon  became  able  to  read  all  these 
languages,  which,  at  a  later  day,  the  scholars  of  so 
many  nations  used  in  bestowing  praises  on  this 
printer-philosopher,  who  had  snatched  the  lightning 
out  of  the  sky,  and  had  undertaken  yet  greater  and 
more  difficult  works.  The  wonderful  discovery  is 
known  all  over  Europe,  and  the  two  colleges  of  New 


26  FRANKLIN. 

England,  Yale  leading  the  way,  honor  themselves  by 
calling  him  Master  of  Arts.  They  adopt  this  runa- 
way apprentice,  this  heretical  tamer  of  lightning, 
into  the  company  of  their  academic  children.  Soon 
the  splendid  colleges  of  all  Europe  confer  their  hon- 
ors, transmit  to  him  their  medals,  give  him  their 
diplomas,  and  hereafter  it  is  "Dr.  Franklin,"  and  no 
longer  plain  "  Mr.  Benjamin."  From  the  sale  of  the 
ballads  to  the  rope  of  the  lightning,  some  thirty  years 
have  passed,  —  a  long  step  of  time,  but  one  by  which 
he  mounted  very  high. 

IV.  In  1776,  in  a  small  room  at  Philadelphia, 
there  are  five  men  draughting  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, —  Livingston  from  New  York,  Jefferson 
from  Virginia,  Franklin,  Sherman,  and  John  Adams, 
New  England  born,  all  three  of  them,  Massachusetts 
boys,  poor  men's  sous,  who  had  fought  their  way  to 
eminence ;  their  birth  to  talent  better  than  their 
breeding  to  academic  culture.  Behind  them  all 
stands  Samuel  Adams,  another  great  man  of  Massa- 
chusetts, tall  and  valiant,  also  a  poor  man's  son. 
Active  and  noiseless,  he  inspires  the  five  companions 
for  this  great  work,  with  his  thought,  and  courage, 
and  trust  in  God.  These  are  the  men  who  are  mak- 
ing the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Virginia  fur- 
nished the  popular  pen  of  Jefferson.  Massachusetts 
the  great  ideas,  the  "self-evident  truths,"  of  the  Dec- 


FRANKLIN.  27 

laration  itself.  New  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  they 
had  been  "  Kesolved  "  in  the  meetings  of  Boston,  and 
in  other  obscure  little  New  England  towns.  House- 
hold words  they  were  to  her,  which  our  forefathers' 
pious  care  had  handed  down. 

This  is  a  wide  prospect.  A  whole  continent  now 
opens  before  us. 

The  curtain  is  lifted  high.  You  see  the  young 
nation  in  its  infancy.  "  Hercules  in  his  cradle,"  said 
Franklin ;  but  with  a  legion  of  the  mystic  serpents 
about  him.  If  the  rising  sun  shines  auspicious,  yet 
the  clouds  threaten  a  storm,  long  and  terrible. 

In  the  interval  from  1752  to  1776,  between  the  act 
of  "the  thunderbolt  of  heaven,"  and  that  of  "the 
sceptre  of  the  tyrant,"  much  has  taken  place.  Frank- 
lin has  been  chosen  member  of  the  first  Colonial  Con- 
gress, which  met  at  Albany  in  1754,  to  protect  the 
Provinces  from  the  French  and  Indians.  His  far- 
reaching  mind  there  planned  the  scheme  of  the 
Union  for  common  defence  among  all  the  colonies. 
This  the  British  government  disliked ;  for  if  the 
colonies  should  form  a  Union,  and  the  people  be- 
come aware  of  their  .strength,  they  would  soon  want 
independence.  Also  Franklin  has  set  military  ex- 
peditions on  foot ;  he  and  another  young  Buckskin, 
furnishing  most  of  the  little  wisdom  which  went  with 
General  Braddock  and  his  luckless  troop.  He  has 
been  a  colonel  in  actual  service,  and  done  actual  work, 


28  FRANKLIN. 


too.  He  it  was  who  erected  the  fortresses  all  along 
the  frontier  between  the  English  and  French  pos- 
sessions west  of  Pennsylvania.  He  had  been  sent  to 
England  as  a  colonial  agent  to  remonstrate  against 
the  despotism  of  the  proprietaries.  He  was  also 
appointed  agent  for  Georgia,  New  Jersey,  and  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  was  commissioned  to  look  after  their 
rights,  and  protect  them  from  the  despotism  of  the 
King  and  Parliament.  He  was  examined  before  the 
House  of  Commons  in  1776,  and  gave  admirable  tes- 
timony as  to  the  condition  and  character  of  the  colo- 
nies, and  as  to  the  disposition  and  temper  of  America 
towards  the  Stamp  Act.  His  cool,  profound,  and 
admirable  statements,  for  the  most  part  made  without 
premeditation  or  anticipation  of  the  questions  pro- 
posed to  him,  astonished  the  English  Parliament. 
"  What  used  to  be  the  pride  of  the  Americans  ?  " 
asked  a  questioner.  "To  indulge  in  the  fashions 
and  manufactures  of  Great  Britain."  "  What  is  now 
their  pride  ?  "  M  To  wear  their  old  clothes  over  again 
till  they  can  make  new  ones."  He  found  that  some 
of  the  first  men  of  Boston,  Governor  Hutchinson, 
Lieutenant  Governor  Oliver,  and  other  Boston  tories, 
"citizens  of  eminent  gravity"  in  those  times,  had 
written  official  and  private  letters  to  a  conspicuous 
member  of  Parliament,  infamously  traducing  the 
Colony  of  Massachusetts,  and  pointing  out  means 
for  destroying  the  liberties  of  all  the  colonies  and 


FRANKLIN.  29 

provinces,  so  as  to  establish  a  despotism  here  in 
America.  He  obtained  these  letters,  private  yet 
official,  and  sent  them  to  a  friend  in  Boston,  Mr. 
Gushing,  a  timid  man,  speaker  of  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Representatives.*  They  were  laid  before 
the  house  and  printed.  Massachusetts,  in  conse- 
quence, sent  a  petition  to  the  king,  asking  that  these 
treacherous  officers  be  removed  from  office.  This 
righteous  act,  exposing  the  secret  villany  of  officials, 
drew  on  Franklin  the  wrath  of  the  New  England 
tories,  and  of  the  rulers  of  Old  England.  For  this 
he  was  brought  before  the  privy  council  of  the  King 
of  England  on  January  29,  1774.  A  great  array 
of  famous  men  were  in  attendance,  five  and  thirty 
lords  and  others.  There  Mr.  Wedderburn,  the 
king's  Solicitor  General,  insulted  him  with  such  abuse 
as  only  such  a  man  could  know  how  to  invent.  Be- 
fore this  audience  of  five  and  thirty  lords, f  who  were 

*  Lord  John  Russell's  correspondence  of  Fox,  p.  124.  Franklin 
got  the  Hutchinson  and  Oliver  letters  in  1774,  from  John  Temple, 
who  was  a  commissioner  of  customs  of  Boston.  These  letters  were 
addressed  to  Thomas  Whately,  under  Secretary  of  State,  a  private 
friend,  but  a  private  friend  in  office. 

t  For  an  account  of  this  examination,  see  Dr.  Bowring's  Memoir 
of  Jeremy  Eentham,  Chap.  III.  p.  59.  On  the  3d  of  May,  1774, 
Wedderburn  (afterwards,  in  1780,  created  Baron  Loughborough,  and 
Earl  Rosslyn,  in  1801)  and  Governor  Hutchinson  were  burnt  in  effigy 
in  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 

Wedderburn  had  called  Franklin  "a man  of  three  letters, "mean- 
ing "fur"  (which  signifies  thief),  and  quoted  from  Zunga's  speech 


30  FRANKLIN. 

seated,  did  Franklin  stand  for  two  hours  and  listen  to 
this  purchased  sycophant.  "  He  has  forfeited  all  the 
respect  of  societies  and  of  men,"  said  the  courtier. 
"  It  is  impossible  to  read  his  account  expressing  the 
cruellest  and  most  deliberate  malice,  without  horror." 
The  councillors  of  England  cheered  this  tin  pedler 
of  malignant  rhetoric.  But  Franklin  "  stood  con- 
spicuously erect,  without  the  smallest  movement  of 
any  part  of  his  body,"  and  kept  his  countenance  as 
immovable  as  if  his  features  had  been  made  of  wood. 
He  appeared  on  this  day  in  a  suit  of  Manchester  vel- 
vet, which  it  was  noticed  he  did  not  again  wear  in 
England.*  He  was  turned  out  of  his  office  of  Post- 
master-General of  the  American  colonies  that  very 
night. 

in  the  play  of  the  "  Revenge."  See  Lord  J.  Russell's  Correspon- 
dence of  Fox,  vol.  i.  p.  125. 

*  The  writer  does  not  pursue  the  story  of  this  suit  of  Manchester 
velvet,  which  it  has  been  commonly  understood  was  laid  aside  by 
Franklin,  and  was  afterwards  designedly  worn  by  him  when  he  came 
to  sign  the  treaty  of  Peace  at  Paris,  on  the  30th  November,  1782. 
In  this  he  has  followed  the  cautious  and  accurate  Mr.  Sparks,  who 
discredits  the  authorities  upon  which  Lord  Brougham  has  adopted 
the  story.  (Vol.  i.  Sparks's  Franklin,  488.)  But  now  it  seems  to 
rest  upon  unquestionable  authority,  notwithstanding  Mr.  Sparks's 
disclaimer.  Lord  John  Russell  considers  it  must  be  true,  because 
Lord  St.  Helens  (the  envoy  of  England  who  also  signed  the  treaty) 
told  the  story  to  Lord  Holland,  and  said  that  Franklin  informed  them 
of  it  "with  a  triumphant  air"!  Lord  St.  Helens  could  not  speak 
of  this  without  indignation.  See  also  Bowring's  Memoir  of  Bentham, 
Chap.  III.  p.  59. 


FRANKLIN.  31 

This  was  the  philosopher  whom  the  learned  acade- 
mies of  England,  and  of  all  Europe,  had  honored  for 
taking  the  thunderbolt  out  of  the  sky ;  now  in  that 
little  room  he  is  wrenching  the  sceptre  from  tyrants, 
making  the  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE,  for 
which  alone  Britain  would  give  him  a  halter.  More 
than  twenty  years  before  he  had  sought  to  establish 
a  Union  between  the  colonies ;  now  he  seeks  Inde- 
pendence. He  would  build  up  the  new  government 
on  self-evident  truths,  that  all  men  are  created  equal, 
each  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  uualieii- 
able  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness.  He  is  an  old  man  now,  more 
than  seventy  years  of  age ;  an  old  man,  lame  with 
the  gout,  but  active,  as  the  sun.  is  active  with  light. 
He  is  the  most  popular  man  in  America,  the  most 
influential  man  in  the  American  Congress,  —  save  only 
the  far-seeing  and  unflinching  Samuel  Adams,  —  the 
greatest,  the  most  celebrated,  the  most  conciliating. 
It  is  a  grand  act,  this  moulding  the  progress  of  per- 
manent and  eternal  principles,  to  form  the  American 
government.  The  world  saw  none  grander  in  that 
century.  There,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  a  na- 
tion laid  the  foundation  of  its  state  on  the  natural 
law  that  all  governments  shall  uphold  all  men's 
right,  not  a  few  men's  privilege. 

V.    Franklin,  at  Paris,  is  negotiating  the  treaty  of 


32  FRANKLIN. 

peace  between  America  and  Great  Britain  in  1783, 
in  connection  with  John  Adams,  Jeflersou,  Laurens, 
and  Jay.  He  accomplished  the  work,  put  an  end  to 
all  hostility  with  England,  and  secured  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  our  independence.  The  war  of  eight  sad 
years  (1775-1783)  was  now  over.  They  had  been 
to  him  years  of  intense  activity  at  the  court  of 
France,  where  he  was  not  only  American  Minister, 
but  Judge  in  Admiralty  and  Consul  General,  charged 
with  many  and  very  discordant  duties.  Seventy- 
seven  years  old,  he  now  sets  the  seal  of  triumph  on 
the  act  of  the  American  people.  What  was  only  a 
Declaration  in  1776,  is  now  a  fact  fixed  in  the  his- 
tory of  mankind.  Washington  was  the  Franklin  of 
camps,  but  Franklin  was  the  Washington  of  courts ; 
and  the  masterly  skill  of  the  great  diplomatist,  the 
patience  which  might  tire  but  which  never  gave  out ; 
the  extraordinary  shrewdness,  dexterity,  patience, 
moderation,  and  silence  with  which  he  conducted  the 
most  difficult  of  negotiations,  are  not  less  admirable 
than  the  coolness,  intrepidity,  and  caution  of  the 
great  general  in  his  most  disastrous  campaign.  Now 
these  troubles  are  all  over.  America  is  free,  Brit- 
ain is  pacific,  and  Franklin  congratulates  his  friends. 
"  There  never  was  a  good  war  or  a  bad  peace  ;  "  and 
yet  he,  the  brave,  wise  man  that  he  was,  sought  to 
make  the  treaty  better,  endeavoring  to  persuade 
England  to  agree  that  there  should  be  no  more 


FRANLLIN.  33 

temptation  to  privateering,  and  that  all  private 
property  on  sea  and  land  should  be  perfectly  safe 
from  the  ravages  of  war.  But  in  1783  Britain  had 
not  come  nearer  to  it  than  the  administration  in 
America  had  in  1857.  Franklin  wished  to  do  in 
1783  what  the  wisest  negotiators  tried  to  accomplish 
in  April,  1856,  in  the  treaty  of  Paris. 

VI.  Franklin,  an  old  man  of  eighty-four,  is 
making  ready  to  die.  The  great  philosopher,  the 
great  statesman,  he  has  done  with  philosophy  and 
state  craft,  not  yet  ended  his  philanthropy.  He  is 
satisfied  with  having  taken  the  thunderbolt  from  the 
sky,  bringing  it  noiseless  and  harmless  to  the  ground  ; 
he  has  not  yet  done  with  taking  the  sceptre  from 
tyrants.  True,  he  has,  by  the  foundation  of  the 
American  state  on  the  natural  and  inalienable  rights 
of  all,  helped  to  set  America  free  from  the  despotism 
of  the  British  king  and  Parliament.  None  has  done 
more  for  that.  He  has  made  the  treaty  with  Prussia, 
which  forbids  privateering  and  the  war-like  plunder 
of  individual  property  on  land  or  sea.  But  now  he 
remembers  that  there  are  some  six  hundred  thousand 
African  slaves  in  America,  whose  bodies  are  taken 
from  their  control,  even  in  time  of  peace  —  peace  to 
other  men,  to  them  a  period  of  perpetual  war.  So, 
in  1787,  he  founds  a  society  for  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
He  is  its  first  President,  and  in  that  capacity  signed  a 
3 


34  FRANKLIN. 

petition  to  Congress,  asking  "the  restitution  of  lib- 
erty to  those  unhappy  men,  who  alone  in  this  land 
of  freedom  are  degraded  into  perpetual  bondage  ;  " 
asks  Congress  "  that  you  will  step  to  the  very  verge 
of  the  power  vested  in  you  for  discouraging  every 
species  of  traffic  in  the  persons  of  our  fellow-men." 
This  petition  was  the  last  public  act  of  Franklin,  the 
last  public  document  he  ever  signed.  He  had  put 
his  hand  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  to  the 
treaties  of  alliance  with  France  and  Prussia ;  to  the 
treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain ;  now  he  signs 
the  first  petition  for  the  abolition  of  slavery. 

Between  1783  and  1790  what  important  events  had 
taken  place  !  For  three  years  he  had  been  President 
of  Pennsylvania,  unanimously  elected  by  the  Assem- 
bly every  time  save  the  first,  when  one  vote  out  of 
seventy-seven  was  cast  against  him.  He  had  been  a 
member  of  the  Federal  Convention,  which  made  the 
Constitution,  and,  spite  of  what  he  considered  to  be 
its  errors,  put  his  name  to  it.  Neither  he,  nor 
Washington,  nor  indeed  any  of  the  great  men  who 
helped  to  make  that  instrument,  thought  it  perfect, 
or  worshipped  it  as  an  idol.  But  now,  as  his  last 
act,  he  seeks  to  correct  the  great  fault,  and  blot,  and 
vice  of  the  American  government  —  the  only  one 
which,  in  seventy-six  years,  has  given  us  much 
trouble.  The  petition  was  presented  on  the  12th 
of  February,  1790.  It  asked  for  the  abolition  of  the 


FRANKLIN.  35 

slave  trade,  and  for  the  emancipation  of  slaves.  A 
storm  followed  ;  the  South  was  in  a  rage,  which  lasted 
till  near  the  end  of  March.  Mr.  Jackson,  of  Geor- 
gia, defended  the  "  peculiar  institution."  The  ancient 
republics  had  slaves  ;  the  whole  current  of  the  Bible, 
from  Genesis  to  Revelation,  proved  that  religion 
was  not  hostile  to  slavery.  On  the  23d  of  March, 
1790,  Franklin  wrote  for  the  National  Gazette  the 
speech  in  favor  of  the  enslavement  of  Christians.  He 
put  it  into  the  mouth  of  a  member  of  the  Divan  of 
Algiers.  It  was  a  parody  of  the  actual  words  of  Mr. 
Jackson,  of  Georgia,  as  delivered  in  Congress  a  few 
days  before  ;  the  text,  however,  being  taken  out  of  the 
Koran.  It  was  one  of  the  most  witty,  brilliant,  and 
ingenious  things  that  came  from  his  mind.  This  was 
the  last  public  writing  of  Dr.  Franklin;  and,  with 
the  exception  of  a  letter  to  his  sister  and  one  to  Mr. 
Jefferson,  it  was  the  last  line  which  ran  out  from  his 
fertile  pen,  —  written  only  twenty-four  days  before  his 
death.  What  a  farewell  it  was  !  This  old  man,  "the 
most  rational,  perhaps,  of  all  philosophers,"  the  most 
famous  man  in  America,  now  in  private  life,  waiting 
for  the  last  angel  to  unbind  his  spirit  and  set  him  free 
from  a  perishing  body,  makes  his  last  appearance 
before  the  American  people  as  President  of  an  aboli- 
tion society,  protesting  against  American  slavery  in 
the  last  public  line  he  writes  !  One  of  his  wittiest 
and  most  ingenious  works  is  a  plea  for  the  bondman, 


36  FRANKLIN. 

adroit,  masterly,  short,  and  not  to  be  answered.  It 
was  fit  to  be  the  last  scene  of  such  a  life.  Drop 
down  the  curtain  before  the  sick  old  man,  and  let  his 
healthy  soul  ascend  unseen  and  growing. 

Look,  now,  at  the  CHARACTER  of  Dr.  Franklin.  All 
the  materials  for  judging  him  are  not  yet  before  the 
public,  for  historians  and  biographers,  like  other  at- 
torneys, sometimes  withhold  the  evidence,  and  keep 
important  facts  out  of  sight,  so  as  to  secure  a  ver- 
dict which  does  not  cover  the  whole  case.  There 
are  writings  of  Franklin  which  neither  the  public 
nor  myself  have  ever  seen.  Enough,  however,  is 
known  of  this  great  man  to  enable  us  to  form  a  just 
opinion.  Additional  things  would  alter  the  quantity, 
not  the  kind.  The  human  faculties,  not  pertaining 
to  the  body,  may  be  divided  into  these  four :  the  in- 
tellectual, the  moral,  the  affectional,  and  the  religious. 
Look  at  Franklin  in  respect  to  each  of  the  four. 

I.  He  had  an  intellect  of  a  very  high  order,  — 
inventive,  capacious,  many-sided,  retentive.  His  life 
covers  nearly  the  whole  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Ten  years  he  was  the  contemporary  of  Leibnitz,  twen- 
ty-one of  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  He  was  sixty-three 
years  old  when  Afcxander  Humboldt  and  Cuvier 
were  born.  He  embraced  Voltaire.  His  orbit  was 
intersected  by  that  of  Berkeley,  Montesquieu,  Hume, 
Kant,  Priestley,  Adam  Smith.  But  in  the  eighty- 


FRANKLIN.  37 

four  years  to  which  his  life  extended,  I  find  no  mind, 
which,  on  the  whole,  seems  so  great.  I  mean  so 
generally  able,  various,  original,  and  strong.  Others 
were  quite  superior  to  him  in  specialities  of  intellect, 
—  metaphysical,  mathematical,  and  poetical.  Many 
surpassed  him  in  wide  learning,  of  literature,  or 
science,  and  in  careful  and  exact  culture ;  but  none 
equalled  him  in  general  largeness  of  power,  and 
great  variety  and  strength  of  mind.  In  an  age  of 
encyclopaedias,  his  was  the  most  encyclopedic  head 
in  all  Christendom.  In  the  century  of  revolution, 
his  was  the  most  revolutionary  and  constructive  in- 
tellect. He  had  no  nonsense,  was  never  eccentric. 
The  intellectual  faculties  may  be  thus  conveniently 
distributed :  — 

1.  The  understanding,  the  practical  power,  which 
seeks  economic  use  as  the  end.  2.  The  imagina- 
tion, the  poetic  power  which  seeks  ideal  beauty 
as  the  end.  3.  The  reason,  the  philosophic  power, 
which  seeks  scientific  truth  as  the  end,  which  is  par- 
ent alike  of  use  and  beauty,  the  Martha  and  Mary 
of  the  family.  Franklin  had  a  great  understanding, 
a  moderate  imagination,  and  a  great  reason.  He 
could  never  have  become  an  eminent  poet  or  orator. 
With  such,  the  means  is  half  tbfe  end.  He  does  not 
seem  to  have  attended  to  any  of  the  fine  arts,  with  the 
single  exception  of  music.  He  was  not  fond  of  works 
of  imagination,  and  in  his  boyhood  he  sold  Bunyan's 


38  FRANKLIN. 

Pilgrim's  Progress  to  buy  Burton's  Historical  Col- 
lections. Perhaps  he  underrated  the  beautiful  and  the 
sublime.  I  do  not  remember,  in  the  ten  volumes  of 
his  writings,  a  line  containing  a  single  reference  to 
either.  This  defect  in  his  mental  structure  continu- 
ally appears  in  his  works  and  in  his  life.  Hence, 
there  is  a  certain  homeliness  and  lack  of  elegance  in 
his  writings,  and  sometimes  a  little  coarseness  and 
rudeness.  Hence,  also,  comes  the  popular  judgment 
that  he  was  not  a  high-minded  man.  Kant,  Kepler, 
Descartes,  Leibnitz,  Schelling,  were  men  of  great 
imagination,  which  gives  a  particular  poetic  charm 
to  their  works  that  you  do  not  find  in  the  Sax- 
on philosophers.  Bacon,  Locke,  Newton,  Adam 
Smith,  were  men  of  vast  ability,  but  not  imaginative 
or  poetic.  Franklin  thinks,  investigates,  theorizes, 
invents,  but  never  does  he  dream.  No  haze  hangs 
on  the  sharp  outline  of  his  exact  idea  to  lend  it  an 
added  charm.  Besides  this  immense  understanding, 
Franklin  had  an  immense  reason,  which  gave  him 
great  insight  and  power  in  all  practical,  philosophic, 
and  speculative  matters.  He  was  a  man  of  the  most 
uncommon  common  sense.  He  saw  clearly  into  the 
remote  causes  of  things,  and  had  great  power  of 
generalization  to  discuss  the  universal  laws,  the  one 
eternal  principle,  or  the  manifold  and  floating  facts. 
He  did  not  come  to  his  philosophic  conclusions  and 
discoveries  by  that  poetic  imagination  which  creates 


FKANKLIN.  39 

hypothesis  after  hypothesis,  until  some  one  fits  the 
case  ;  nor  did  he  seem  to  reach  them  by  that  logical 
process  which  is  called  induction.  But  he  rather 
perfected  his  wonderful  inventions  by  his  own  simple 
greatness  of  understanding  and  of  reason,  a  sponta- 
neous instinct  of  causality,  which  led  him  to  the  point 
at  once.  He  announced  his  discoveries  with  no  pa- 
rade. He  does  the  thing,  and  says  nothing  about  it, 
as  if  it  were  the  commonest  thing  in  the  world.  His 
simplicity  appears  not  only  in  his  manners  and  in 
his  life,  but  also  in  his  intellectual  method.  Accord- 
ingly, he  was  a  great  inventor  of  new  ideas  in  sci- 
ence, the  philosophy  of  matter,  and  in  politics,  the 
philosophy  of  States ;  in  both  running  before  the 
experience  of  the  world.  If  only  his  philosophic 
writings  had  come  down  to  us,  we  should  say,  "Here 
was  a  mind  of  the  first  order,  —  a  brother  of  Leib- 
nitz, Newton,  Cuvier,  Humboldt.""  If  nought  but 
his  political  writings  were  preserved,  his  thoughts 
on  agriculture,  manufactures,  commerce,  finance,  the 
condition  and  prospect  of  the  colonies,  the  effect  of 
certain  taxes  on  them,  the  historical  development  of 
America  and  her  ultimate  relation  to  England,  then 
1  we  should  say,  "  Here  was  one  of  the  greatest  polit- 
ical thinkers  of  the  age  or  of  the  world."  For 
while  he  anticipated  the  scientific  discoveries  of  fu- 
ture philosophers,  he  does  the  same  in  the  depart- 
ments of  the  politician  and  the  statesman.  He 


40  FRANKLIN. 

understood  easily  the  complicated  affairs  of  a  Na- 
tion, and  saw  clearly  the  great  general  laws  which 
determine  the  welfare  of  the  individual  or  of  the 
State.  Yet  he  made  occasional  mistakes;  for  the 
swift  forethought  of  genius,  on  the  whole,  is  not  so 
wise  as  the  slow  experience  of  the  human  race.  No- 
body is  as  great  as  everybody.  Constructive  as  well 
as  inventive,  he  was  a  great  organizer.  He  knew 
how  to  make  his  thought  a  thing,  to  put  his  scientific 
idea  into  matter,  making  a  machine,  his  social  idea 
into  men,  creating  an  institution.  He  could  produce 
the  maximum  of  result  with  the  minimum  outlay  of 
means.  His  contrivances,  mechanical  and  social,  are 
many  and  surprising.  He  improved  the  printing 
press,  invented  stereotyping,  and  manifold  letter- 
writers.  He  cured  smoky  chimneys  of  their  bad 
habits.  He  amended  the  shape  and  the  rig  of 
ships.  He  showed  the  sailors  how  they  might  take 
advantage  of  the  Gulf  Stream^to  shorten  their  east- 
ward transit  of  the  Atlantic,  and  how  to  steer  so  as 
to  avoid  it  on  the  westward  passage.  He  told  them 
how  a  few  men  might  haul  a  heavy  boat,  and  how  they 
might  keep  fresh  provisions  at  sea.  He  suggested  im- 
provements in  the  soup-dishes  of  sailors,  and  in  the 
water-troughs  of  horses.  He  introduced  new  kinds 
of  seeds,  grass,  turnips,  broom-corn,  curious  beans 
from  England,  vines  from  France,  and  many  other 
vegetables  and  plants.  He  drained  lands  skilfully, 


FRANKLIN.  41 

and  gathered  great  crops  from  them.  He  reformed 
fireplaces,  and  invented  the  Franklin  stove.  First 
of  all  men  he  warmed  public  buildings.  He  had  a  fan 
on  his  chair,  moved  by  a  treadle,  so  as  to  drive  away 
the  flies.  He  made  him  spectacles,  with  two  sets  of 
glasses,  for  far  and  near  sight.  He  invented  a  musi- 
cal instrument,  and  improved  the  electrical  machine. 
He  discovered  that  lightning  and  electricity  are  the 
same,  proving  it  in  the  simplest  and  deepest  and 
most  satisfactory  manner,  by  catching  the  actual 
lightning.  He  first  discerned  the  difference  be- 
tween positive  and  negative  electricity. 

He  taught  men  to  protect  buildings  from  light- 
ning, and  would  use  electricity  to  kill  animals  with- 
out pain,  and  to  make  tough  meat  tender  and  diges- 
tible. "There  are  no  bounds,"  says  he,  in  1751,  Mto 
the  force  men  may  raise  and  use  in  the  electrical  way  ; 
for  little  may  be  added  to  little,  ad  infinitum,  and  so 
accumulated,  and  then,  afterwards,  discharged  "to- 
gether at  once."  He  invented  a  phonographic  alpha- 
bet, which  does  not  now  look  so  strange  as  in  1768. 
He  improved  the  wheels  of  carriages,  the  form  of 
wind-mills  and  water-mills,  and  the  covering  of  roofs. 
First  of  all  men,  he  induced  the  citizens  of  Philadel- 
phia to  construct  foot  pavements  (which  we  call  side- 
walks), and  to  place  crossing-stones  in  their  most 
frequented  streets.  In  London,  he  first  proved  that 
streets  could  be  swept  in  dry  weather  as  well  as  hoed 


42  FRANKLIN. 

and  scraped  in  wet  weather.  He  demonstrated  this 
fact,  by  hiring  an  old  woman  to  sweep  the  street  in 
front  of  his  house.  Thus  this  Yankee  printer  taught 
the  Londoners  a  useful  lesson,  now  universally  known. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-two,  in  1728,  Franklin  found- 
ed the  first  American  Club  for  mutual  improvement. 
It  was  called  a  "Junto."  In  1744  he  was  the  founder 
of  "the  American  Philosophical  Society,"  the  first 
scientific  association  on  this  continent.  He  estab- 
lished, in  1751,  the  first  American  free  school  out- 
side of  New  England,  and  he  originated  the  first 
social  library  in  the  world.  He  organized  the  first 
fire  company  in  America,  and  the  first  night-watch  in 
Philadelphia.  In  1741  he  started  the  first  magazine 
in  America,  —  the  General  Magazine,  —  the  forerun- 
ner of  the  North  American,  Examiner,  New  England 
Review,  and  a  great  host  more.  In  the  Quaker  State 
of  Pennsylvania,  in  1744,  he  first  organized  the  mili- 
tary force,  getting  ten  thousand  subscribers  to  main- 
tain a  volunteer  militia.  The  women  provided  silken 
banners,  which  Franklin  supplied  with  appropriate 
mottoes.  He  was  himself  colonel  of  the  Philadel- 
phia regiment. 

He  first  enrolled  men  for  the  military  defence  of 
the  Quaker  city,  in  1744,  when  Spanish  pirates  came 
up  the  river,  and  threatened-  to  burn  the  town.  He 
planned  the  admirable  military  organization  for  the 
whole  colony  of  Pennsylvania,  in  1754,  for  defence 


FRANKLIN.  43 

against  the  French  and  Indians,  and  in  1755  fur- 
nished the  commissariat  trains  of  General  Brad- 
dock.  He  first  proposed  the  union  of  all  the  prov- 
inces, in  1754,  and  in  1775  he  first  made  the  plan  of 
a  confederacy  of  them  all,  which  could  not  be  adopted 
till  1778,  though  then  with  improvements.  Such 
was  the  distracted  condition  of  all  things  in  America 
at  that  time,  that  this  organizing  skill  seemed  most 
of  all  things  needful ;  and  Franklin's  great  power 
was  not  only  in  invention,  but  in  organization  quite 
as  much.  He  had  a  genius  for  creation  and  adminis- 
tration. He  easily  saw  what  things  belonged  to- 
gether, and  found  the  true  principle  which  would 
make  many  coalesce  and  become  an  association,  af- 
fording freedom  to  each  individual,  and  social  unity 
to  all. 

Yet  his  plan  for  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania  did  not  work  well ;  nor  would  his 
scheme,  that  the  Federal  officers  should  serve  with- 
out salary,  have  proved  to  be  desirable  or  practica- 
ble. His  design  for  the  excitement  of  the  ambition 
of  children  at  school  I  think  was  a  great  mistake. 
If  he  had  lived  in  1857,  instead  of  in  1776,  he  would 
not  have  left  a  hundred  pounds  to  be  expended  in 
medals  of  silver  or  gold,  which,  while  they  stir  the 
ambition  of  few,  dishearten  and  discourage  many, 
and  leave  heart-burnings  amongst  all.  He  could  not 
foresee  what  it  is  no  merit  in  schoolmasters  and 


44  FRANKLIN. 

schoolmistresses  to  perceive  after  him.  He  founded 
many  societies,  which  still  continue,  and  his  schemes 
have  been  extended  far  and  wide.  The  people  un- 
derstood this  genius  for  all  kinds  of  practical  and 
social  arrangement,  and  put  his  name  to  many  insti- 
tutions of  which  he  was  but  remotely  the  founder. 
Churches  are  called  after  Paul,  Peter,  James,  John, 
but  fire  companies,  debating  societies,  book  clubs, 
libraries,  hospitals,  and  the  like,  are  named  for 
Franklin.  Institutions  for  theology  have  the  name 
of  theologic  apostles,  but  institutions  for  humanity 
bear  the  name  of  this  great  apostle  of  benevolence. 
Administrative  as  well  as  constructive,  he  was  a 
most  able  manager.  He  knew  how  to  deal  with 
men,  leading  them  to  accept  his  conclusions,  and 
accomplish  his  purposes.  Here  he  was  helped  by 
his  great  shrewdness  and  knowledge  of  the  world, 
and  also  by  his  admirable  geniality  and  kindness  of 
manner,  good-humor,  mirth,  and  reserve.  He  did 
not  drive  men,  but  led  them,  and  that  often  with  a 
thread  so  delicate  that  they  did  not  see  it.  He  did 
not  affect  to  lead,  but  only  to  follow.  So  the  wise 
mother  conducts  her  refractory  boy  to  school  for  the 
first  time,  not  dragging  him  by  the  hand  or  by  the 
ear,  and  hauling  him  there,  school-mother  fashion, 
but  by  throwing  something  forward,  and  letting  lit- 
tle Master  Wilful  run  and  pick  it  up ;  then  varying 
the  experiment,  and  so  conquering  without  a  battle. 


FRANKLIN.  45 


He  knew 


"  Men  should  be  taught  as  if  you  taught  them  not, 
And  things  unknown  proposed  as  things  forgot." 

He  took  care  not  to  wound  the  vanity  of  men,  or 
hurt  their  self-esteem,  by  exhibiting  his  own  immense 
superiority  of  knowledge,  insight,  and  skill.  He  had 
tact,  —  that  admirable  art  of  hitting  the  nail  on 
the  head  at  the  first  strike,  and  not  bruising  the 
fingers  while  it  is  driven  home.  He  was  one  of 
the  most  adroit  of  diplomatists,  fully  equal  to  the 
European  practitioners,  whose  fathers,  from  genera- 
tion to  generation,  had  been  accustomed  "to  lie 
abroad  for  the  advantage  of  their  country."  Can- 
did and  open  with  the  honest,  none  knew  better 
than  he  how  to  manage  a  cunning  man.  He  knew 
how  to  conciliate.  When  others  made  a  speech,  he 
told  a  story,  or  invented  a  parable,  and  so  cheaply 
drew  the  thunder  out  of  the  hostile  cloud.  If  he 
could  not  help  knowing  the  faults  of  the  men  he 
was  obliged  to  work  with,  he  forbore  from  letting 
them  see  what  he  knew.*  He  could  speak  at  the 
right  time,  none  more  silvery ;  but  he  knew  when 
silence  was  golden,  and  had  a  wise  reserve.  Hence 

*  Jefferson  declared  that  the  charge  against  Franklin  of  subservi- 
ency to  France  "  had  not  a  shadow  of  foundation,"  and  "that  it 
might  truly  be  said  that  they  [the  government  of  France]  were  more 
under  his  influence  than  he  under  theirs.  Eandall's  Jefferson,  vol. 
iii.  p.  449,  note. 


46  FRANKLIN. 

he  was  often  thought  to  dissemble  and  feign,  because 
he  said  nothing.  He  knew  how  to  work,  and  when 
to  wait.  When  his  iron  was  cold  he  heated  it,  and 
only  struck  it  when  it  was  hot ;  and  he  could  make 
his  chimney  burn  its  own  smoke. 

Singularly  modest,  he  claimed  very  little  for  him- 
self of  merit,  honor,  or  originality.  He  let  others, 
when  it  helped  the  common  cause,  use  his  political 
or  philosophical  thought  as  if  it  were  common  prop- 
erty, or  the  private  estate  of  any  claimant ;  knowing, 
as  he  said,  that  it  would  all  come  right  in  the  end, 
without  his  wasting  any  words  now.  With  abun- 
dance of  private  enemies,  he  had  no  private  quarrels, 
which  it  always  takes  two  to  make.  Calumnies 
against  him  he  left  time  to  answer.  Where  are  they 
now?  Assaulted  by  some-  of  the  wiliest,  craftiest, 
and  most  insidious,  he  never  broke  a  private  friend- 
ship. Some  he  convinced,  some  he  wooed,  others 
he  gently  drew,  and  some  he  took  up  in  his  great 
fatherly  arms,  and  carried,  and  kissed,  and  set  them 
down  just  where  he  would.  He  quarrelled  only  with 
the  public  enemies  of  his  country,  but  took  the  mild- 
est ways  of  allaying  trouble.  When  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  was  excited  and  inharmonious, 
Franklin  suggested  that  their  meetings  should  be 
opened  with  prayers.  And  so  he  shed  oil  on  the 
troubled  waters,  and  all  tumult  ceased.  He  knew 
how  to  use  the  auspicious  moment,  and  to  make  hay 


FRANKLIN.  47 

while  the  sun  shoue.  All  men  have  fits  of  easy  be- 
nevolence. He  could  take  advantage  of  them. 

Thus  he  procured  the  cannon  from  Governor  Clin- 
ton, of  New  York,  for  the  armament  of  the  fort  be- 
low Philadelphia,  against  a  threatened  invasion  of 
French  and  Spaniards.  Franklin,  Colonel  Lawrence, 
Messrs.  Allen  and  Taylor,  were  sent  to  New  York  to 
borrow  cannon  of  Governor  Clinton.  At  first  the  gov- 
ernor met  them  with  a  flat  refusal.  But  after  a  din- 
ner, where  there  was  great  drinking  of  Madeira  wine, 
he  softened  by  degrees,  and  said  he  would  lend  six. 
After  a  few  more  bumpers  he  advanced  ten,  and  at 
length  he  very  good-naturedly  granted  eighteen. 
They  were  fine  cannon,  eighteen  pounders,  with  their 
proper  carriages,  and  were  soon  transported,  and 
mounted  on  the  fort. 

In  like  manner,  seizing  the  opportunity  when  the 
news  of  General  Burgoyne's  surrender  at  Saratoga 
reached  Paris,  he  at  once  made  the  treaty  of  alliance 
between  the  United  States  of  America  and  France. 
It  could  not  have  been  done  a  moment  sooner. 

II.  Franklin's  moral  powers  were  certainly  great ; 
his  moral  perceptions  quick,  distinct,  and  strong.  His 
moral  character  was  high,  though  by  no  means  without 
defects.  He  uniformly  sought  justice  in  the  relation 
between  nation  and  nation,  government  and  people, 
man  and  man,  and  did  not  stop  at  the  letter  of 
treaties  and  statutes,  or  at  habits  and  customs  never 


48  FRANKLIN. 

so  old,  but  went  back  to  the  natural  rights  of  man. 
He  loved  peace,  public  and  private,  and  hated  all 
that  was  sectional  and  personal.  He  was  the  enemy 
of  all  slavery,  called  by  whatever  political  or  ecclesi- 
astical name.  Yet  his  moral  sense  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  so  active  as  were  his  affections  and  in- 
tellect in  his  early  days.  This  is  not  uncommon. 
The  faculty  of  conscience  which  sees  the  eternal 
right,  is  often  dormant  at  the  beginning  of  life. 
Hence  he  made  w  errata,"  as  he  technically  calls 
them,  which  he  afterwards  pointed  out  himself,  that 
he  might  warn  others.  He  stumbled  many  times  in 
learning  to  walk,  and,  as  he  was  a  tall  youth,  and 
moved  fast,  so  he  fell  hard.  At  the  last  there  is  a  lit- 
tle lack  of  that  nice  womanly  delicacy  which  you  find 
in  a  moral  character  of  the  very  highest  elevation. 
His  was  the  morality  of  a  strong,  experienced  person, 
who  had  seen  the  folly  of  wise  men,  the  meanness 
of  proud  men,  the  baseness  of  honorable  men,  and 
the  littleness  of  great  men,  and  made  liberal  allow- 
ances for  the  failures  of  all  men.  If  the  final  end  to 
be  reached  were  just,  he  did  not  always  inquire  about 
the  provisional  means  which  led  thither.  He  knew 
that  the  right  line  is  the  shortest  distance  between 
two  points,  in  morals  as  in  mathematics,  but  yet  did 
not  quarrel  with  such  as  attained  the  point  by  a 
crooked  line.  Such  is  the  habit  of  politicians,  diplo- 
matists, statesmen,  who  look  on  all  men  as  a  com- 


FRANKLIN.  49 

mander  looks  on  his  soldiers,  and  does  not  ask  them 
to  join  the  church  or  keep  their  hands  clean,  but 
to  stand  to  their  guns  and  win  the  battle. 

Thus,  in  the  legislature  of  Pennsylvania,  Franklin 
found  great  difficulty  in  carrying  on  the  necessary 
measures  for  military  defence  because  a  majority  of 
the  Assembly  were  Quakers,  who,  though  friendly  to 
the  success  of  the  revolution,  founded  contrary  to 
their  principles,  refused  to  vote  the  supplies  of  war. 
So  he  caused  them  to  vote  appropriations  to  pur- 
chase bread,  flour,  wheat,  or  other  grain.  The  Gov- 
ernor said,  "I  shall  take  the  money,"  for  "I  under- 
stand very  well  their  meaning,  —  other  grain  is  gun- 
powder." He  afterwards  moved  the  purchase  of  a 
fire-engine,  saying  to  a  friend,  "Nominate  me  on  the 
committee,  and  I  will  nominate  you ;  we  will  buy  a 
great  gun,  which  is  certainly  a  fire-engine  ;  the  Qua- 
kers can  have  no  objection  to  that." 

Such  was  the  course  of  policy  that  Franklin  took, 
as  I  think,  to  excess ;  but  yet  I  believe  that  no 
statesman  of  that  whole  century  did  so  much  to  em- 
body the  eternal  rules  of  right  in  the  customs  of  the 
people,  and  to  make  the  constitution  of  the  universe 
the  common  law  of  all  mankind ;  and  I  cannot  be- 
stow higher  praise  than  that  on  any  man  whose  name 
I  can  recall.  He  mitigated  the  ferocities  of  war.  He 
built  new  hospitals  and  improved  old  ones.  He  first 
4 


50  FRANKLIN. 

introduced  this  humane  principle  into  the  Law  of 
Nations,  that  in  time  of  war,*  private  property  on 
land  shall  be  unmolested,  and  peaceful  commerce 
continued,  and  captive  soldiers  treated  as  well  as  the 
soldiers  of  the  captors.  Generous  during  his  lifetime, 
his  dead  hand  still  gathers  and  distributes  blessings 
to  the  mechanics  of  Boston  and  their  children.  True 
it  is  that 

"  Him  only  pleasure  leads  and  peace  attends, 
Whose  means  are  pure  and  spotless  as  his  ends." 

*  In  the  treaty  of  1783,  between  the  United  States  and  Prussia, 
the  following  was  the  twenty -third  article,  prepared  by  Franklin  :  — 

"  If  war  should  arise  between  the  two  contracting  parties,  the  mer- 
chants of  either  country,  then  residing  in  the  other,  shall  be  allowed 
to  remain  nine  months  to  collect  their  debts  and  to  settle  their  affairs, 
and  may  depart,  freely  carrying  off  all  their  effects  without  molesta- 
tion or  hinderance.  And  all  women  and  children,  scholars  of  every 
faculty,  cultivators  of  the  earth,  artisans,  manufacturers,  and  fisher- 
men, unarmed  and  inhabiting  unfortified  towns,  villages,  or  places, 
and  in  general  all  others  whose  occupations  are  for  the  common  sub- 
sistence and  benefit  of  mankind,  shall  be  allowed  to  continue  their 
respective  employments,  and  shall  not  be  molested  in  their  persons, 
nor  shall  their  houses  and  goods  be  burnt  or  otherwise  destroyed, 
nor  their  fields  wasted  by  the  armed  force  of  the  enemy,  into  whose 
power  by  the  events  of  war  they  may  happen  to  fall.  But  if  anything 
is  necessary  to  be  taken  from  them  for  the  use  of  such  armed  force, 
the  same  shall  be  paid  for  at  a  reasonable  price. 

"  And  all  merchant  and  trading  vessels  employed  in  exchanging  the 
products  of  different  places,  and  thereby  rendering  the  necessaries, 
conveniences,  and  comforts  of  human  life  more  easy  to  be  obtained, 
and  more  general,  shall  be  allowed  to  pass  free  and  unmolested,  and 
neither  of  the  contracting  powers  shall  grant  or  issue  any  commis- 


FRANKLIN.  51 

But  it  is  a  great  thing  in  this  stage  of  the  world  to 
find  a  man  whose  ends  are  pure  and  spotless.  Let 
us  thank  him  for  that. 

In  his  private  morals  there  were  doubtless  great 
defects,  and  especially  in  his  early  life  much  that 
was  wrong  and  low.  His  temperament  inclined  him 
to  vices  of  passion.  He  fell  the  way  he  leaned,  and 
caught  an  abiding  stain  from  his  intrigues  with  low 
women.  His  desertion  of  his  betrothed,  Miss  Read, 
who  afterwards  became  his  wife,  was  unjustifiable 

sion  to  any  private  armed  vessels,  empowering  them  to  take  or  de- 
stroy such  trading  vessels,  or  interrupt  such  commerce." 

See  also  WASHINGTON'S  letter  to  COUNT  DE  ROCHAMBEAU,  31st 
July,  1786,  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  treaty  of  amity,  which  has  lately  taken  place  between  the 
King  of  Prussia  and  the  United  States,  marks  a  new  era  in  negotia- 
tion. It  is  the  most  liberal  treaty  which  has  ever  been  entered  into 
between  independent  powers.  It  is  perfectly  original  in  many  of 
its  articles,  and,  should  its  principles  be  considered  hereafter  as  the 
basis  of  connection  between  nations,  it  will  operate  more  fully  to 
produce  a  general  pacification  than  any  measure  hitherto  attempted 
amongst  mankind." 

Napoleon  III.,  7th  August,  1858,  on  the  occasion  of  the  opening 
of  the  docks  at  Cherbourg,  when  the  statue  of  Napoleon  I.  was  un- 
covered, said,  "  Une  des  questions  pour  lequel  il  avoit  lutte  le  plus 
energiquement,  la  liberte  des  mers,  qui  consacre  le  droit  des  neu- 
tres,  est  aujourd'hui  resolue  d'un  commun  accord,  tant  il  est  vrai 
que  la  posterite  se  charge  toujours  de  realiser  les  idees  d'un  grand 
homme." 

Notwithstanding  this  great  authority,  we  will  still  claim  for  Frank- 
lin the  honor  of  first  propounding  this  doctrine  of  the  freedom  of 
the  seas,  and  the  notion  itself  as  one  of  our  Yankee  "  idees." 


52  FRANKLIN. 

and  mean.  At  the  age  of  twenty-four  he  sought  to 
negotiate  a  matrimonial  engagement  with  a  very 
deserving  young  woman.  He  demanded  with  her  a 
portion  of  one  hundred  pounds,  and  required  her 
father  to  mortgage  his  house  to  raise  the  money. 
The  bargain  was  broken  off,  and  the  woman  in 
question  soon  became  the  wife  of  another.  He 
then  made  overtures  of  marriage  in  otber  quar- 
ters, but  soon  found  that  "the  business  of  a  printer 
being  generally  thought  to  be  a  poor  one,"  he  was 
not  to  expect  money  with  a  wife  that  was  worth 
taking  without.  At  length  he  married  his  former 
love,  Miss  Deborah  Read,  whom  he  had  deserted 
more  than  six  years  before.  I  make  no  excuse  for 
these  things,  and  shall  not  call  twelve  a  score  when 
it  is  only  a  dozen.  His  conduct  in  these  respects 
was  mean  and  low.  But  it  is  Franklin  who  tells  us 
these  things  against  himself,  and  gives  a  conscien- 
tious list  of  "errata."  What  other  American  ever 
thus  volunteered  evidence  to  condemn  himself?  He 
diligently  corrected  his  "errata"  at  a  later  day,  and 
if  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  did  not  shine  bright  in 
his  morning  hours,  it  yet  made  for  him  a  long  clear 
day.  True,  he  was  set  free  from  the  youthful  bias 
of  passion;  but  of  the  worser  vices  of  ambition, 
vanity,  covetousness,  self-esteem,  envy,  revenge, 
malice,  I  find  no  trace  in  all  his  writings,  or  in  those 
of  his  many  enemies.  Though  he  was  terribly  tried 


FRANKLIN.  53 

by  Dr.  Arthur  Lee,  and  by  John  Adams,  I  cannot 
remember  a  single  revengeful  or  envious  word  that 
he  ever  wrote  in  all  his  numerous  writings,  public 
and  private.  He  hated  George  III.  ;  and  it  must  be 
confessed  that,  if  that  were  a  failing  in  an  American, 
it  yet  "leaned  to  virtue's  side."  One  of  the  wittiest 
of  men,  his  feathered  shaft  was  never  pointed  with 
malice,  not  a  word  has  come  from  his  laughter  or 
scorn  at  the  expense  of  his  private  foes.  I  find  in 
him  no  inordinate  love  of  power,  or  of  office,  or  of 
money,  and  not  the  smallest  desire  for  show  or  dis 
tinction.  He  laughed  at  his  own  vanity.  None  else 
could  find  it  to  laugh  at.  At  the  period  of  his  early 
life,  men  in  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  whose  only 
distinction  was  that  they  were  worth  five  or  six 
thousand  pounds,  and  were  residents  in  provincial 
towns  of  ten  or  twenty  thousand  inhabitants,  mocked 
at  this  printer,  the  son  of  a  tallow-chandler,  and 
spoke  of  his  "  mechanic  rust."  "  Contempt  pierces 
the  hide  of  the  rhinoceros,"  says  the  proverb. 
Franklin  remembered  this,  and  thus  began  his  last 
will  and  testament :  "I,  Benjamin  Franklin,  printer, 
late  Minister  Plenipotentiary  from  the  United  States 
of  America  to  the  court  of  France,  now  President  of 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  do  make  and  declare  this 
my  last  will  and  testament,"  &c.*  He  had  no  little 
resentments ;  he  forgave  his  enemies,  as  few  States- 

*  Sparks's  Franklin,  i.  599. 


54  FRANKLIN. 

men  and  few  Christians  do,  except  in  formal  prayers, 
where  it  costs  nothing  and  leads  to  nothing.  He 
was  publicly  generous,  even  to  his  country's  foes. 
Mr.  John  Dickinson  was  Franklin's  bitterest  enemy 
in  Pennsylvania.  He  had  written  a  special  book 
against  British  grievances,  the  "Farmer's  Letters," 
while  Franklin  was  agent  in  London.  Franklin  re- 
printed the  book,  introducing  it  by  an  excellent  pref- 
ace written  by  himself*  thus  overcoming  evil  with 
good,  and  doing  good  to  those  who  persecuted  him. 
Franklin  had  a  strong  will.  All  great  men  have ; 
but  it  was  not  invasive  or  aggressive.  It  cut  not 

C7CU 

other  wills  asunder.  His  large  stream,  swift  and 
deep,  kept  its  own  banks,  and  did  not  overslaugh 
another's  land.  He  would  go  to  his  purpose  by  your 
road.  He  was.  inflexible  for  principles  and  for  ends, 
but  very  conciliating  and  accommodating  as  to  means 
and  methods ;  never  obstinate.  He  could  bend  his 
own  will,  but  not  suffer  it  to  be  broken.  Moderate, 
just,  persistent,  now  open,  now  reserved,  he  accom- 
plished the  liberation  of  his  country.  Yet  he  was 
often  thought  to  be  loose,  irregular,  not  to  be  relied 
upon,  indifferent,  and  false  to  his  country.  He  had 
no  puritanic  asceticism.  His  morals  were  wider  than 
Boston,  wider  than  New  England. 

III.  Franklin  was  eminently  an  affectionate  man. 
He  had  a  wonderful  benevolence,  and  was  even  greater 
in  this  than  ill  philosophy  or  politics.  He  was  full 


FRANKLIN.  55 

of  loving-kindness  and  tender  mercy.  This  affec- 
tionate benevolence  was  not  merely  a  principle,  it 
was  quite  as  much  the  instinct  of  a  kindly  nature. 
You  find  it  in  his  earliest  writings,  those  written  be- 
fore he  was  twenty-one  years  old.  He  was  continu- 
ally doing  good  in  the  most  practical  way.  He  took 
care  of  his  poor  relations,  some  of  whom,  of  course, 
repaid  him  not  with  gratitude,  but  with  perpetual 
grumblings  and  complainings.  Franklin,  like  all 
men,  found  that  gratitude  was  no  common  virtue. 
He  attempted  to  improve  the  condition  of  sailors, 
soldiers,  prisoners  of  war,  servants,  housekeepers, 
farmers,  and  the  rest  of  mankind.  He  had  many 
friends,  making  them  easily,  and  retaining  them 
long.  His  correspondence  with  them  is  full  of 
beautiful  and  tender  love.  Witness  his  letters  to 
Priestley,  Vaughan,  Bishop  Shipley,  Hartley,  Whate- 
ly,  Jared  Eliot,  and  the  numerous  ladies  to  whom 
he  delighted  to  talk  with  pen  or  lip.  Flowers  of 
endearment  bloom  in  his  private  letters  —  wild,  nat- 
ural, and  attractive.  Even  in  his  public  documents 
wayside  blossoms  of  affection  will  spring  up.  Lit- 
erature records  the  writings  of  few  men  that  were 
so  genial.  I  think  no  man  in  the  world  ever  set  on 
foot  so  many  good  works  of  practical  benevolence. 
He  sowed  the  seed  in  Philadelphia,  and  thence  the 
plants  spread  over  all  the  Northern  States.  In  his 
private  capacity  he  looked  after  the  a*ed,  the  sick, 


56  FRANKLIN. 

and  the  poor.  He  tried  to  protect  the  Indians.  He 
would  have  liberated  the  slaves.  In  his  high  diplo- 
matic office  he  sought  to  confine  the  ravages  of  war 
to  public  property,  and  to  the  actual  soldiers  in  the 
field.  Franklin  was  the  universal  Good  Samaritan. 
When  he  first  set  his  foot  in  Philadelphia  he  gave 
twopence  worth  of  bread  to  a  poor  woman,  and  his 
last  act  was  of  the  same  character. 

IV.  It  has  often  been  said  that  Franklin  had  no 
religion.  Even  the  liberal  Mr.  Sparks  thinks  it  is 
to  be  regretted  that  he  did  not  bestow  more  atten- 
tion to  the  evidences  of  Christianity.*  Mr.  Sparks 
did  not  mean  that  he  neglected  the  evidences  of 
God's  existence  or  of  man's  duty,  or  that  Franklin 
required  to  be  convinced  of  the  need  of  honesty, 
truth,  piety,  morality,  reverence,  love  to  God,  and 
the  keeping  of  his  laws.  Many  have  called  him  not 
only  negatively  irreligious,  but  positively  anti-reli- 
gious and  atheistic.  Here  all  rests  on  a  definition. 

First,  if  religion  be  a  compliance  with  the  popular 
ecclesiastical  ceremonies,  then  Franklin  had  little 
religion,  for  in  his  boyhood  he  did  not  frequent  the 
meeting-houses  or  churches  much,  but  spent  his  only 
leisure  day  in  reading  -and  writing ;  in  his  manhood 
he  had  little  to  do  with  church  forms. 

Second,  if  religion  be  a  belief  in  the  standard  doc- 

*  Sparks' s  Franklin,  i.  617. 


FRANKLIN.  57 

trines  of  the  ecclesiastical  theology, — the  Trinity, 
the  fall,  total  depravity,  the  atonement,  the  invinci- 
ble wrath  of  God,  eternal  hell,  the  damnation  of  men 
or  of  babies,  the  miraculous  Revelation  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New,  the  miracles  of  famous 
men,  Jews,  Gentiles,  or  Christians,  —  then  Franklin 
had  no  religion  at  all ;  and  it  would  be  an  insult  to 
say  that  he  believed  in  the  popular  theology  of  his 
time,  or  of  ours,  for  I  find  not  a  line  from  his  pen 
indicating  any  such  belief. 

Third,  if  religion  be  fear,  whining,  creeping 
through  the  world,  afraid  to  use  the  natural  facul- 
ties in  the  natural  way ;  if  it  be  hatred  of  such  as 
think  differently  from  the  mass  of  those  who  do  not 
think  at  all,  but  only  hear  and  believe ;  if  it  be  to 
damn  men  because  they  say  there  is  no  damnation ; 
then  Franklin  had  no  religion  at  all,  but  was  posi- 
tively anti-religious  and  atheistic.  For  he  stood  up 
straight,  like  a  man  on  his  own  feet,  and  walked 
manfully  forward,  daring  to  think  and  to  tell  what 
he  thought  himself,  leaving  others  to  think  also  for 
themselves,  having  a  manly  contempt  for  all  big- 
otry, all  narrowness,  yet  not  hating  the  bigot.  But 
if  religion  be  to  do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and  to 
walk  humbly  with  God ;  if  it  be  to  love  God  with 
all  the  mind,  and  heart,  and  soul,  and  one's  neigh- 
bor as  one's  self;  if  it  be  to  forgive  injuries,  to  do 
good,  to  all  men,  to  protect  the  needy,  clothe  the 


58  FRANKLIN. 

naked,  instruct  the  ignorant,  feed  the  hungry,  to 
visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction,  to 
lift  up  the  fallen,  to  break  the  rod  of  the  oppressor 
and  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  and  at  heart  to  en- 
deavor to  keep  one's  self  unspotted  from  the  world ; 
then  what  statesman,  what  man,  what  Bishop  of  that 
time,  was  his  equal?  Nay,  bating  the  errors  he  has 
himself  pointed  out  in  his  life,  in  what  was  he  behind 
the  very  chiefest  of  the  apostles  ?  If  such  things  as 
he  practised  make  a  man  a  Christian,  then  Franklin 
must  stand  high  on  the  list.  If  they  do  not,  then 
it  is  of  no  consequence  who  is  called  Christian,  or 
Pagan,  or  Turk. 

In  boyhood  he  published  some  opinions,  which  he 
afterwards  thought  foolish.  He  had  the  manhood  to^ 
be  sorry  for  it,  to  say  so,  and  to  recall  the  little  tract, 
the  only  printed  thing  of  his  that  I  have  not  seen. 
For  a  philosopher  in  that  age  he  had  a  singularly 
devout  spirit,  and  took  pains  to  improve  the  form  of 
worship,  making  a  new  translation  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  publishing  a  modified  edition  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  English  Church ; 
there  is  a  little  volume  of  pikers  still  in  manuscript, 
which  Franklin  made  for  his  own  use.  He  was  on 
intimate  terms  with  Priestley,  one  of  the  most  able 
men  of  that  age ;  with  Shipley,  an  English  bishop ; 
with  Dr.  Price,  a  Welch  dissenter ;  with  Jared  Eliot, 
a  Connecticut  Calvinist;  with  Ezra  Styles,  another 


FRANKLIN.  59 

of  the  same  stamp,  who  calls  himself  "  the  most  un- 
worthy of  all  the  works  of  God ; "  and  with  White- 
field,  the  great  Methodist  orator.  He  had  no  asceti- 
cism, no  cant ;  he  did  not  undertake  to  patronize  the 
Deity.  He  was  benevolent,  cheerful,  honest,  rever- 
ential, full  of  trust  in  God.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
I  like,  in  a  religious  point  of  view,  everything  that  I 
find  in  his  writings.  Now  and  then  there  is  a  tone 
of  levity  which  sounds  ill.  I  do  not  think  he  meant 
it  ill.  Franklin  has  a  bad  reputation  among  minis- 
ters and  in  churches.  You  see  why.  Because  he 
had  natural  religion ;  because  he  reverenced  that, 
and  trusted  God  more  than  he  feared  man.  If  he 
had  done  as  Mr.  Polk  did,  —  sent  for  a  minister  on 
his  death-bed,  and  declared  that  all  his  righteousness 
was  as  filthy  rags  ;  that  he  had  not  any  faith  in  hu- 
man nature,  but  through  means  of  miracles  and 
atonement,  —  then  Franklin's  praise  would  have  been 
sounded  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other.  And 
if  he  had  said,  "Brethren,  slavery  is  all  right;  here 
is  the  Old  and  New  Testament  for  it,"  the  whole 
church  of  America,  and  its  ministers  from  the  Pe- 
nobscot  to  the  Sacramento,  from  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods  clear  down  to  Lake  Nicaragua,  would  Have 
been  praising  him  to  this  day.  Instead  of  these 
things,  Franklin  said,  "If  I  should  escape  shipwreck, 
I  should  not  build  a  church,  but  a  light-house." 
As  it  is,  Franklin  and  Washington  must  be  content 


60  FRANKLIN. 

to  have  possessed  the  greatest  of  human  virtues  in 
the  heroic  degree,  and  to  endure  a  bad  name  from 
.the  American  clergy.  Franklin  had  the  substance 
of  religion,  such  as  Jesus  said  should  be  rewarded  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  with  a  "  Well  done,  good 
and  faithful  servant,"  an  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have 
done  it  unto  the  least  of  these,  ye  have  done  it  unto 
me."  * 

Great  man  as  he  was,  he  saw  not  all  the  evils  of 
his  own  time.  He  owned  a  slave  in  1758,  named 
"Billy,"  who  ran  away  from  him  in  England,  but 
was  soon  found  under  the  protection  of  a  lady,  who 
was  proud  of  making  him  a  Christian,  and  contribut- 
ing to  his  education  and  improvement.  She  had  sent 
him  to  school.  He  was  taught  to  read  and  write,  to 
play  the  violin  and  French  horn.  Franklin  says, 
"  Whether  she  will  be  willing  to  part  with  him,  or 
can  persuade  Billy  to  part  with  her,  I  know  not." 
Yet  in  1760  he  became  one  of  the  trustees  of  Rev. 
Dr.  Bray's  admirable  association  for  the  instruction 
of  negroes. f 

But  it  must  be  considered  that  slavery,  in  1758, 
was  a  very  different  thing  from  what  it  is  in  1859.  It 
was  by  no  means  the  cruel  and  malignant  thing  that  it 
now  is.  In  the  Constitutional  Convention  he  conseut- 

*  As   to   his   religious   opinions,   see    Sparks's  Franklin,  i.  514; 
x.  422-425. 

t  Sparks's  Franklin,  vii.  pp.  201,  202. 


FKANKLIN.  61 

ed  to  the  continuance  of  slavery  in  the  Union.  I  do 
not  find  that  he  publicly  opposed  the  African  slave- 
trade.  At  that  time  he  was  the  greatest  man  on  the 
Continent  of  America,  possessing  and  enjoying  great 
respect,  great  popularity  and  influence  throughout  the 
country.  Had  he  said,  "  There  must  be  no  slavery  in 
the  United  States.  It  is  unprofitable  ;  it  conflicts  with 
our  interests,  social,  educational,  commercial,  moral. 
It  is  uuphilosophicalj  at  variance  with  the  first  prin- 
ciples set  forth  in  our  Declaration  of  Independence. 
It  is  in  conflict  with  the  very  objects  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  incompatible  with  the  political  existence 
of  a  republic.  Moreover,  it  is  wicked,  utterly  at 
war  with  the  eternal  law  which  God  has  written  in 
the  constitution  of  man  and  of  matter.  It  must,  by  all 
means,  be  put  down:" — had  he  said  these  things, 
what  would  have  happened?  Washington  would 
have  been  at  his  side,  and  Madison  and  Sherman, 
with  the  States  of  New  England  and  of  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland.  On  the 
other  hand,  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  South  Caro- 
lina and  Georgia,  might  have  gone  and  been  annexed 
to  England  or  Spain.  But,  instead  of  four  millions 
of  negro  slaves,  and  instead  of  slave  ships  fitting  out 
in  New  York  and  Baltimore,  and  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment at  Boston  playing  genteel  comedy  at  the 
slave-trader's  trial,  what  a  spectacle  of  domestic  gov- 
ernment should  we  have  had  !  What  national  pros- 


62  FRANKLIN. 

perity  !  But  Franklin  spoke  no  such  word.  Did  he 
not  think?  Did  he  fear?  Judge  ye  who  can.  To 
me,  his  silence  there  is  the  great  fault  of  his  life. 
It  was  the  hour  of  the  Nation's  trial.  Even  he  could 
not  stand  the  rack.  No  man  is  so  good  as  all  men. 
No  experience  is  so  wise  as  time. 

Yet  Franklin  had  his  little  inconsistencies.  In  his 
Poor  Richard's  Almanac  he  said,  "Lying  rides  on 
debt's  back,"  and  "  Pay  as  you  go."  But  it  must  be 
told,  "Benjamin  Franklin,  printer,"  ran  in  debt  at  the 
grocer's,  and  the  debt  accumulated  from  year  to  year. 
It  was  two  pounds  in  1731 ;  nine  pounds  in  1736 ; 
and  twenty-six  pounds  in  1750.  Some  of  the  items 
are  curious.  "A  fan  for  Debby,"  his  wife,  two  shil- 
lings ;  a  "  beaver  hat "  for  himself,  two  pounds ;  dress- 
ing an  old  hat  for  his  son,  two  shillings.  He  talked 
against  luxury;  but  in  1758  he  sent  home  sixteen 
yards  of  floweret  tissue,  which  cost  nine  guineas,  or 
about  fifty  dollars,  for  a  dress  for  his  wife.  And 
for  his  daughter  he  sends  a  pair  of  buckles,  which 
cost  three  guineas.  Also  he  purchased  a  w  pair  of  silk 
blankets,  very  fine,"  taken  by  a  privateer,  and  also 
"a fine  jug  for  beer."  Said  he,  "I  fell  in  love  with  it 
at  first  sight,  for  I  thought  it  looked  like  a  fat,  jolly 
dame,  clean  and  tidy,  dressed  in  a  neat  blue  and 
white  calico  gown,  good-natured  and  lovely ;  and  it 
put  me  in  mind  of somebody."  *  But  he  was 

*  Sparks's  Franklin,  vii.  164. 


FRANKLIN.  63 

wealthy  then,  and  the  country  prosperous.    In  differ- 
ent times  he  had  sterner  practices.* 

No  man  ever  rendered  so  great  services  to  Ameri- 
can education.  They  began  forty  years  before  the 
Revolution,  and  are  not  ended  yet.  His  newspapers 
and  pamphlets  were  of  immense  value  to  the  cause 
of  humanity ;  for  he  was  able,  wise,  just,  and  be- 
nevolent. At  twenty  years  of  age,  he  wrote  as  well 
as  Addison  or  Goldsmith.  His  English  is  fresh,  idio- 
matic, vigorous,  and  strong,  like  the  language  of  Dean 
Swift.  His  style  is  direct  and  often  beautiful  as  a 
fringed  gentian  in  the  meadows  of  September.  He 
had  great  skill  in  making  an  abstract  style  popular. 
He  reduced  many  things  to  a  common  denominator, 
that  is  to  say,  to  their  lowest  terms,  and  so  he  made 
them  easy  for  all  to  handle  and  comprehend,  having 
in  this  respect  the  rare  excellence  of  Socrates  and 
Bacon.  Believing  sincerity  to  be  the  last  part  of 
eloquence,  he  has  not  left  a  line  of  sophistry  in  his 
ten  volumes.  For  twenty-five  years  he  published, 
annually,  ten  thousand  copies  of  "'Poor  Richard's 
Almanac,"  full  of  thrifty  maxims  and  virtuous  coun- 
sel. It  was  one  of  the  most  valuable  allies  of  the 
Nation.  For  it  made  popular  throughout  the  Nation 
that  thrift  which  enabled  Congress  to  keep  the  Revo- 
lutionary army  together  for  nearly  seven  years.  I 

*  See  the  admirable  letter  to  Sarah,  3d  June,  1774,  Sparks's 
Franklin,  viii.  373. 


64  FRANKLIN. 

have  often  thought  that  the  battles  of  the  Revolution 
could  not  have  been  fought  between  1775  and  1783 
had  not  the  Almanac  been  published  from  1730  to 
1755.  It  was  the  People's  classic  volume,  hanging 
in  the  kitchens  from  the  Penobscot  to  the  Alleghany 
Mountains,  and  from  Buffalo  Creek  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Savannah  River.  It  was  the  Bible  of  the  shop 
and  of  the  barn.  Poor  Richard  became  the  American 
saint,  especially  the  saint  of  New  England,  —  a  saint 
devoted  to  the  almighty  dollar. 

His  scientific  labors  were  for  the  Human  Race.  Yet 
science  was  only  an  incident  in  his  life,  which  was 
devoted  intensely  to  practical  studies.  In  his  early 
days  he  had  no  training  in  school  or  college,  but  he 
had  a  nature  that  was  more  college  than  the  university 
that  could  not  let  him  in.  He  had  no  acquaintance 
with  the  higher  mathematics,  nor  any  companionship 
with  learned  men  until  his  great  discoveries  were  all 
made.  The  magnificent  works  of  Newton,  Leibnitz, 
Haller,  Blumeubach,  Priestley,  Cuvier,  Von  Hum- 
boldt,  fill  me  with  less  surprise  than  the  grand  gener- 
alizations of  Franklin,  made  with  no  help  from  society 
or  from  any  intellectual  atmosphere  about  him,  and 
in  the  midst  of  laborious  duties.  He  pursued  sci- 
ence under  the  greatest  of  difficulties,  and  how  mag- 
nificent were  the  prizes  that  he  won  ! 

^Franklin's  diplomatic  labors  in  England  before  the 


FRANKLIN.  65 

Revolution,  and  during  its  period  at  Paris,  were  of 
immense  value.  Whenever  the  Revolutionary  Pic- 
ture shall  be  composed,  Franklin  and  Samuel  Adams 
will  stand  as  the  central  figures.  He  is  the  great 
man  of  the  epoch.  He,  of  all  other  men,  made  the 
American  cause  popular  in  England,  and  so  secured 
troops  of  friends  in  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  camp. 
He,  at  an  early  day,  obtained  the  efficient  aid  of 
France,  supplies  of  money  and  military  stores ;  and 
in  1778  he  induced  Louis  XVI.  to  acknowledge  the 
Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America.  It 
seems  to  me  he  was  the  only  American  that  could 
have  accomplished  that  work ;  and  without  the  aid 
of  France,  it  now  seems  that  the  Revolution  would 
have  failed,  and  would  have  been  called  a  "Rebel- 
lion ;  "  Hancock  and  the  Adamses  had  been  "  trai- 
tors," and  the  rhetoricans  would  have  made  political 
capital  by  discoursing  on  the  cowardice,  the  treach- 
ery, and  the  wickedness  of  that  infamous  rebel,  Gen- 
eral George  Washington ! 

But  the  services  by  which  he  is  best  known  were 
doubtless  rendered  in  his  more  common  and  ordinary 
life  ;  in  his  powers  of  moulding  matter  into  machines, 
of  organizing  men  into  companies  and  institutions. 
It  is  amazing  how  much  he  accomplished  in  that  way. 
Nothing  was  too  small  for  him ;  nothing  too  large. 
He  could  teach  a  sea-cook  to  put  a  two-pound  shot 
into  his  kettle  of  hard  peas  so  that  the  roll  of  the 
5 


66  FRANKLIN. 

ship  should  grind  them  to  powder ;  and  he  could  or- 
ganize a  state,  a  nation,  or  a  Household  of  nations. 
He  was  a  Universal  Yankee,  for  he  tilled  all  the  space 
between  the  discoveries  of  a  scientific  or  political 
truth  and  the  operations  of  a  mechanic  who  files  a 
screw  in  a  gun-lock. 

If  it  be  the  function  of  a  great  man  to  help  the 
little  ones,  to  help  them  to  help  themselves,  who  ever 
did  it  more  or  better?  We  need  not  be  sorry  to  see 
a  great  man  busy  with  the  discovery  of  little  things, 
for  the  little  things  form  the  welfare  of  a  Nation,  while 
they  educate  the  inventor  to  yet  larger  power. 

Franklin  had  his  enemies,  many,  bitter,  powerful, 
and  unrelenting.  From  1757  to  1783,  the  British 
Government  hated  him,  whom  they  feared  more  than 
any  man.  George  III.  warned  his  Ministers  against 
the  "crafty  American,  who  is  more  than  a  match  for 
you  all."  But  his  worst  foes  were  in  Pennsylvania 
and  Massachusetts  ;  and  the  traditional  hatred  in  both 
these  States  has  come  down  to  this  generation.  But 
"let  the  dead  bury  their  dead." 

The  American  Government  was  never  remarkable 
for  gratitude,  until  the  Mexican  war  gave  us  such  a 
crop  of  self-denying  heroes,  — 

"  Who  in  the  public  breach  devoted  stood, 
And  for  their  country's  cause  were  prodigal  of  blood." 

Franklin,  after  he  had  been  abroad  for  a  long  time, 


FRANKLIN.  67 

entreated  further  aid  from  home,  and  the  Nation 
would  not  grant  it.  Smaller  men  had  clerks  as- 
signed to  them.  Franklin  asked  in  vain ;  and  even 
his  money-claim  against  the  government  could  not 
be  attended  to  in  his  lifetime.  It  has  not  been  set- 
tled since.  It  never  will  be. 

Remarkable  for  special  gifts  of  the  highest  kind, 
Franklin  was  yet  more  extraordinary  for  the  admira- 
ble balance  of  all  his  faculties,  intellectual,  moral, 
affectional,  and  religious.  He  was  not  extravagant 
in  conduct  or  in  opinion,  or  even  in  feelings.  I  do 
not  remember  a  single  exaggeration  in  all  his  works. 
Among  all  the  many  schemes  he  was  busy  with,  there 
were  but  two  which  could  be  called  visionary.  One 
was,  that  the  legislature  should  be  but  a  single  body, 
and  not  two,  as  in  England  and  America.  The  other 
was,  that  the  Executive  of  the  Nation  should  have  no 
pecuniary  emolument.  These  were  his  only  political 
or  philosophic  whimseys.  He  was  seldom  hurried 
away  by  his  feelings.  But  here  is  one  instance,  as 
reported  by  himself.  The  famous  preacher  White- 
field  was  preaching  in  Philadelphia,  to  raise  money 
to  build  an  Orphan  House  at  Savannah,  in  Georgia. 
There  were  then  no  materials,  tools,  or  workmen  in 
Georgia  suitable  to  construct  such  an  asylum  ;  and 
Franklin  advised  Whitefield  to  build  the  house  at 
Philadelphia,  and  send  the  Georgia  orphans  to  it. 
But,  says  he,  "He  rejected  my  counsel,  and  I  there- 


68  FRANKLIN. 

fore  refused  to  contribute.  I  happened  soon  after  to 
attend  one  of  his  sermons,  in  the  course  of  which  I 
perceived  he  intended  to  finish  with  a  collection,  and 
I  silently  resolved  that  he  should  get  nothing  from 
me.  I  had  in  my  pocket  a  handful  of  copper  money, 
three  or  four  silver  dollars,  and  five  pistoles  in  gold. 
As  he  proceeded  I  began  to  soften,  and  concluded  to 
give  the  coppers.  Another  stroke  of  his  oratory 
made  me  ashamed  of  that,  and  determined  me  to 
give  the  silver.  And  he  finished  so  admirably  that 
I  emptied  my  pocket  wholly  into  the  collector's  dish, 
gold  and  all." 

Most  economic  of  men  in  all  expenditures  of  power, 
he  could  keep  his  pot  boiling  continuously,  and  not 
let  it  boil  over.  To  warm  his  house  he  did  not  set 
one  chimney  on  fire.  He  said  he  should  like  to  re- 
turn to  this  earth  a  century  after  his  death,  to  see 
how  the  world  went  on.  It  is  now  sixty-seven  years 
since  his  death.  What  if  he  could  have  come  back 
on  the  day  of  the  great  procession  in  September, 
1856,  when  his  statue  was  inaugurated  !  He  would 
find  the  education  of  the  lightning  carried  farther 
than  he  had  dreamed.  He  taught  it  good  manners  ; 
to  keep  a  little  iron  road,  and  not  to  run  against  the 
farmers'  barns  or  the  village  steeple.  He  would  find 
that  it  had  been  taught  to  write  and  print,  and  to  run 
errands  over  lands  and  under  seas.  What  new  pow- 
ers have  come  into  play  since  his  time !  What  a 


FRANKLIN.  69 

change  he  would  find  in  America !  The  thirteen 
States  grown  to  thirty-one  ;  and,  alas,  another  asking 
to  come  in,  and  America  saying  that  she  shall  come  in 
only  with  fetters  on  her  hands,  a  yoke  on  her  neck, 
and  the  shackles  of  slavery  in  her  soul ;  the  three 
millions  of  people  to  thirty  millions ;  the  Boston  of 
ten  thousand  inhabitants  become  one  of  a  hundred 
and  seventy-seven  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty, 
the  thirty  thousand  of  Philadelphia  increased  to  five 
hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand  five  hundred  and 
twenty-nine.  But,  alas,  he  would  find  the  four  hun- 
dred thousand  slaves  of  the  United  States  now  num- 
bering more  than  four  million ;  and  the  doctrines 
that  he  put  into  the  mouth  of  an  Algerine  to  ridicule 
the  idea  of  slavery,  now  adopted  as  the  principles  of 
fifteen  States,  and  the  rules  of  conduct  of  our  Federal 
Government.  What  if  he  had  come  back  to  his  own 
Boston  when  she  made  her  last  rendition  of  a  fugitive 
slave  !  .  Were  he  to  return  to  the  United  States  he 
would  find  nineteen  towns  and  ninety-eight  counties 
bearing  his  own  name,  to  honor  his  life  and  memory. 
But  if  he  staid  a  little  while,  and  bore  the  same  re- 
lation to  the  nineteenth  century  as  formerly  to  the 
eighteenth,  what  would  become  of  his  honors? 

His  character  was  singularly  simple  and  healthy. 
He  used  the  homage  of  France,  and  of  all  Europe, 
and  utilized  his  praises  that  were  in  the  lips  of  men, 
so  as  to  serve  the  great  purposes  of  his  country. 


70  FRANKLIN. 

His  life  shows  the  necessity  of  time  to  make  a  great 
character,  a  great  reputation,  or  a  great  estate.  You 
want  a  long  summer  to  produce  a  great  crop.  His 
old  age  was  beautiful.  Honored  and  admired  as  no 
other  man,  he  went  to  the  house  he  had  built  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  before,  with  his  friends  and  descend- 
ants around  him.  He  continued  in  public  office  till 
within  six  months  of  his  death,  and  in  the  public  ser- 
vice till  within  twenty-four  days  of  it. 

The  warning  he  gives  is  plain  —  to  beware  of  ex- 
cess in  early  youth,  of  trifling  with  the  most  delicate 
sensibilities  of  woman,  and  of  ever  neglecting  the 
most  sacred  duties  of  domestic  life.  Few  men  un- 
derstood the  art  of  life  so  well  as  he.  He  took  great 
pains  to  correct  his  faults.  All  remember  the  day- 
book, in  which  he  kept  an  account  of  his  virtues, 
arranging  them  under  thirteen  heads,  until  he  had 
put  under  his  feet  those  lusts  that  war  against  the 
soul.  The  guidance  he  gives  is  also  plain.  He 
shows  the  power  of  industry,  by  which  he  obtained 
a  large  estate  of  money,  and  still  more  a  manly  en- 
dowment of  learning.  At  twenty-one  he  has  had 
two  years  schooling,  and  no  more ;  at  forty  he  is 
master  of  English,  Latin,  French,  Italian,  Span- 
ish, and  German ;  at  sixty,  the  greatest  Universities 
in  the  world,  and  whole  Nations,  agree  in  calling  him 
the  greatest  philosopher  then  living.  He  was  not 


FRANKLIN.  71 

ashamed  of  the  humblest  industry  whereby  he  made 
his  fortune,  his  reputation,  and  his  character. 

He  shows  not  less  the  power  of  justice  and  be- 
nevolence. It  is  his  moral  and  affectional  character 
that  has  taken  the  strongest  hold  on  America  and 
the  world.  When  he  departed  this  life,  there  had 
been,  of  his  fellow-citizens,  great  men  in  public 
office ;  men  of  mighty  talents :  Jefferson  and  kin- 
dred spirits  were  in  similar  high  places;  but  if  he 
should  cast  his  eye  on  our  diplomatic  servants  abroad 
now,  he  would  not  see  a  single  man  eminent  for  sci- 
ence, literature,  benevolence,  patriotism ;  only  for 
politics  and  satanic  Democracy,  not  the  Celestial  De- 
mocracy. When  he  left  the  world  Washington  was 
President,  and  should  he  come  back  it  would  be 
Pierce  or  Buchanan.  If  he  might  have  beheld  the 
great  procession  in  Boston,  inaugurating  the  statue 
to  his  honor,  how  much  would  his  heart  have  re- 
joiced at  the  stalwart  and  able-bodied  men  in  the 
fire  companies,  —  originated  through  his  thoughts ; 
at  the  men  whose  business  it  is  to  beat  the  anvil, 
and  at  all  manner  of  workmen  that  his  eye  would 
have  looked  upon ;  and  as  the  Franklin-medal  schol- 
ars passed, — when  he  saw  whole  families,  six  sons 
of  a  single  mother,  all  adorned  with  his  medal,  — 
how  proud  he  would  have  been  I  One  thing  would 
have  pained  him.  He  would  have  said  to  the  Fathers 


72  FRANKLIN. 

of  Boston,  "Are  there  no  colored  people  in  your 
town?"  "Several  thousands,"  would  have  been  the 
answer.  M  Have  none  of  them  won  the  medal  ? " 
And  the  City  Government  would  iave  hung  its 
head  with  shame,  and  said,  "  We  never  think  of 
giving  medals  to  those  who  need  them  most."  As 
he  ran  his  eye  along,  he  would  have  seen  but  twr 
swarthy  faces  in  the  whole  length  of  the  procession, 
and  presently  he  would  have  seen  the  officers  of  the 
Mercantile  Library  Association  expel  them  from  its 
ranks,  and  Boston  would  not  have  answered,  and 
said,  Shame  !  but  Franklin  would  have  cried,  Shame  ! 
What  a  life  it  was  !  Begun  with  hawking  ballads 
in  the  streets  of  a  little  colonial  town,  continued  by 
organizing  education,  benevolence,  industry ;  by  con- 
quering the  thunders  of  the  sky,  making  the  lightning 
the  servant  of  mankind ;  by  establishing  Indepen- 
dence ;  by  mitigating  the  ferocity  of  war,  and  brought 
down  to  its  very  last  day  by  his  manliest  effort,  an 
attempt  to  break  the  last  chain  from  the  feeblest  of 
all  oppressed  men.  What  a  life !  What  a  charac- 
ter !  Well  said  a  French  poet,  — 

"  LEGISLATOR  OF  ONE  WORLD  !    BENEFACTOR  OF  TWO  I 

ALL   MANKIND   OWES   TO  YOU   A   DEBT   OF  GRATITUDE." 


WASHINGTON. 


WASHINGTON. 


IN  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in  the 
Colony  of  Virginia, Westmoreland  County,  between  the 
Potomac  and  Rappahannock  Rivers,  at  a  spot  called 
Bridge's  Creek,  there  was  living  an  obscure  farmer, 
named  AUGUSTINE  WASHINGTON.  He  was  born  in 
1694,  and  came  of  a  short-lived  family,  which  had 
emigrated  to  America  in  the  year  1657.  He  inher- 
ited but  little,  and  by  his  own  diligence  and  thrift 
acquired  a  considerable  property,  which  chiefly  con- 
sisted of  wild  land,  negro  slaves,  and  cattle.  In  the 
rude  husbandry  of  the  time  and  place,  he  raised 
corn,  horned  beasts,  swine,  and  tobacco.  Augustine 
Washington  was  first  married  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  to  Jane  Butler,  who  became  the  mother  of  four 
children.  But  she  died,  4th  November,  1728,  only 
two  of  her  children,  her  sons  Lawrence  and  Augustine, 
surviving.  Fifteen  months  later,  6th  March,  1730, 
the  elder  Augustine,  for  a  second  wife,  married  Mary 
Ball,  said  to  be  beautiful,  and  the  belle  of  the  neigh- 

(75) 


76  WASHINGTON. 

boring  country.  She  became  the  mother  of  six  chil- 
dren. 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON  was  the  eldest,  the  fifth  child 
of  his  father,  and  the  first  of  his  mother.  He  was 
born  on  Saturday,  February  22,  1732,  a  day  famous 
in  the  political  annals  of  America.  At  his  birth,  his 
father  was  thirty-eight  years  of  age ;  his  mother  twen- 
ty-eight. He  first  saw  the  light  in  a  rude  farm-house, 
steep-roofed,  with  low  eaves,  one  story  high,  having 
four  rooms  on  the  ground  floor,  and  others  in  the 
attic.  There  were  huge  chimneys  at  each  end,  which 
were  built  up  outside  the  house.  It  was  old  and 
rickety  then  ;  not  a  trace  now  remains  ;  only  a  plain 
stone  marks  the  spot  as  K  The  Birthplace  of  Wash- 
ington." 

George  Washington  was  descended  from  the  com- 
mon class  of  Virginia  farmers.  No  ruler  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  stock  has  obtained  so  great  a  reputa- 
tion for  the  higher  qualities  of  human  virtue.  For 
more  than  one  thousand  years  no  statesman  or  sol- 
dier has  left  a  name  so  much  to  be  coveted.  None 
ever  became  so  dear  to  the  thoughtful  of  mankind. 
In  the  long  line  of  generals,  kings,  and  emperors, 
from  the  first  monarch  to  the  last  president  or  pope, 
none  ranks  so  high  for  the  prime  excellence  of  heroic 
virtue.  His  name  is  a  watchword  of  liberty.  His 
example  and  character  are  held  up  as  the  model  for 
all  men  in  authority.  So  much  is  he  esteemed  at 


WASHINGTON.  77 

home,  that  the  most  selfish  and  deceitful  of  politi- 
cians use  his  name  as  the  stalking-horse  behind  which 
they  creep  when  they  seek  to  deceive  and  "  exploiter  " 
the  People,  He  is  one  of  the  great  authorities  in 
American  Politics ;  all  parties  appealing  to  him, 
sometimes  for  good,  most  commonly  for  evil. 

This  is  the  ground-plan  of  Washington's  life,  —  the 
map  of  facts  and  dates,  the  headlands  only  being 
sketched  in. 

Born,  on  Saturday  morning,  February  22,  1732,  he 
was  baptized  on  April  3d,  of  the  same  year,  in  the 
authorized  Episcopal  Church  of  the  Parish.  His 
father  soon  after  removed  to  Stafford  County,  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Rappahannock,  opposite  to  the  town 
of  Fredericton.  There  George  attended  a  poor  pri- 
vate school,  —  there  was  no  other,  —  kept  by  the 
parish  Sexton,  who  only  taught  Reading,  Writing, 
and  Arithmetic. 

At  sixteen  years  of  age,  in  1748,  Washington  be- 
came a  PUBLIC  SURVEYOR  of  land,  and  found  it  a 
profitable  business,  earning  a  pistole  each  day  (about 
three  -ffo  dollars),  and  sometimes  more  than  that. 
He  continued  in  this  work  for  about  three  years,  but 
had  always  a  turn  for  military  affairs. 

There  were  continual  troubles  with  the  French, 
who  were  advancing  their  frontier  outposts  from  their 
settlements  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  towards  the 


78  WASHINGTON. 

Western  Virginia  borders.  Also  the  American  In- 
dians, who  dwelt  and  wandered  through  the  valley 
of  the  Ohio  River,  and  along  the  great  lakes,  took 
part  in  the  expeditions  and  forages  thence  arising. 
Hence  it  became  necessary  to  enroll  a  Service  of  Mi- 
litia, which  might,  from  time  to  time,  be  called  to  ac- 
tive duty.  In  this  Militia,  Washington,  at  the  age 
of  nineteen,  in  1751,  was  commissioned  by  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Virginia  as  Adjutant  General,  with  the  rank 
of  Major  —  an  office  about  equal  to  that  of  a  militia 
captain  in  New  England.  In  1752,  he  went  to  the 
West  Indies  with  his  consumptive  brother  Lawrence, 
rather  a  distinguished  person  in  the  eastern  parts  of 
Virginia,  who  died  in  1752,  leaving  a  large  estate  for 
George  to  settle,  of  which  a  considerable  portion 
fell  to  him.  In  this  way  he  became  possessed  of  the 
handsome  property  of  Mount  Vernon,  which  the 
brother  had  named  for  the  gallant  British  Admiral 
Vernon,  under  whom  he  had  served  in  early  life. 
Washington  continued  to  hold  his  commission  in  the 
Virginia  Army  until  the  peace  in  1758,  in  which  year, 
about  the  end  of  December,  he  returned  to  private 
life  as  a  farmer  at  Mount  Vernon. 

On  the  6th  day  of  January,  1759,  he  married 
Mrs.  Martha  Custis,  the  widow  of  John  Parker  Cus- 
tis,  a  woman  distinguished  for  beauty,  accomplish- 
ments, and  riches.  He  thus  added  about  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  to  his  estate,  which  was  already 


WASHINGTON.  79 

considerable.  By  her  previous  marriage  she  had 
a  son  of  six,  and  a  daughter  of  four  years  of  age. 
From  1759  to  1775  he  attended  to  the  details  of  a 
country  gentleman's  life  in  Virginia,  improving  his 
land  and  adding  to  his  property.  He  managed  his 
large  estate  with  much  skill  for  the  time  and  place. 
He  became  a  member  of  the  House  of  Burgesses 
(the  Legislature  of  the  Colony  of  Virginia) ,  and  in 
1774  he  was  elected  a  delegate  to  represent  Virginia 
in  the  first  General  Congress  of  all  the  British  Prov- 
inces and  Colonies.  This  Congress  was  called  ancl 
assembled  through  the  influence  of  Dr.  Franklin  and 
Samuel  Adams.  They  had  devised  means,  and  de- 
signed the  objects  of  the  Assembly,  and  had  laid  out 
the  work  for  it  to  do. 

On  the  15th  June,  1775,  he  was  appointed  "Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  American  Forces."  No  longer 
men  called  him  Colonel  or  Esquire.  He  laid  down 
that  high  Military  office  on  the  23d  December,  1783, 
and  retired  to  private  life  at  Mount  Vernon.  In  1787 
he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Federal  Conven- 
tion, which  formed  THE  CONSTITUTION  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  and,  when  that  Convention  was 
organized,  General  Washington  was  elected,  by  a 
unanimous  vote,  to  preside  over  its  deliberations. 

He  was  President  of  the  United  States  from  1789 
to  1797. 

He  retired  to  private  life  again  in  March,  1797  ;  but, 


80  WASHINGTON. 

on  the  following  January,  was  elected  "Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  Armies  "  then  about  to  be  called  into  ser- 
vice on  account  of  the  troubles  threatening  with  the 
Government  of  France. 

He  died  at  Mount  Vernon  on  Saturday,  14th  Decem- 
ber, 1799,  aged  sixty-seven  years,  nine  months,  and 
twenty-two  days,  leaving  an  estate  of  about  half  a 
million  of  dollars,  and  no  child.  He  was  in  the  mili- 
tary service  of  Virginia  about  seven  years,  and  of  the 
United  States  of  America  a  little  more  than  eight 
years.  He  was  President  of  the  United  States  eight 
years.  He  was  forty  years  a  husband. 

For  convenience,  divide  his  life  into  six  periods. 

I.  His  boyhood  and  youth,  —  his  school  time  from 
birth  to  his  nineteenth  year,  1732-1751. 

II.  His  service  in  the  French  and  Indian  war, 
from    his    nineteenth   to   his   twenty-seventh   year, 
1751-1759. 

III.  His   life   as   a   citizen   of  Virginia,   farmer, 
member  of  Assembly,  member  of  the  Central  Con- 
gress,   from   his   twenty-seventh   to   his  forty-third 
year,  1759-1775. 

IV.  His  service  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  from 
his  forty-third  to  his  fifty-first  year,  1775-1783. 

V.  His  service  as  President,  from  his  fifty-seventh 
to  his  sixty-fifth  year,  1789-1797. 

VI.  The  close  of  all,  1799. 


WASHINGTON.  81 

I.  Ill  his  boyhood  and  youth,  his  opportunities  for 
education  were  exceedingly  poor ;  not  equal  to  those 
afforded  by  the  public  District  free  schools  at  that 
period  maintained  in  every  New  England  village. 
During  the  life  of  his  father,  while  he  lived  in  Staf- 
ford County,  and  until  he  was  eleven  or  twelve  years 
old,  he  had  the  help  of  Mr.  Hobby,  a  tenant  of  one 
of  his  father's  houses,  and  also  schoolmaster  and  Par- 
ish sexton.  With  him,  the  lad  was  taught  only  read- 
ing, writing,  and  arithmetic.  He  never  studied 
grammar.  That  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  lost 
arts,  neglected  both  in  conversation  and  in  writing ; 
and  even  the  art  of  spelling  was  in  a  sad  condition. 
His  father  died  soon  after  George  was  eleven  years 
old.  He  then  lived,  for  a  time,  with  his  brother 
Augustine,  at  Bridge's  Creek,  and  attended  the  "  Su- 
perior School"  of  Mr.  Williams,  where  he  seems  to 
have  learned  the  rudiments  of  geometry. 

Some  of  his  early  manuscript  books  are  still  pre- 
served. One  has  the  autograph,  M  George  Washing- 
ton, aged  thirteen."  These  writing-books  are  hand- 
some monuments  of  neatness  and  boyish  diligence. 
"  The  child  is  father  to  the  man."  In  one  of  these  he 
copied  "  Forms  of  Writing,"  copies  of  mercantile  and 
legal  papers,  notes  of  hand,  wills,  leases,  deeds,  and 
the  like.  In  the  same  book  he  also  shut  up  for  safe 
keeping  some  specimens  of  "  poetry,"  or  what  passed 
for  such,  —  hard-trotting  verses,  adorned  with  the 
6 


82  WASHINGTON. 

jingling  bells  of  rhyme.  He  copied,  likewise, 
"  Rules  for  Behavior  in  Company  and  in  Conversa- 
tion," which  have  rather  a  cold,  conventional,  and 
worldly  air,  showing  the  greatest  deference  to  men 
of  superior  social  rank,  and  implying,  in  general, 
that  more  respect  should  be  paid  to  the  condition 
than  to  the  real  quality  of  men.  These  "  Rules"  seem 
to  have  had  much  influence  upon  his  manly  life.  His 
actual  manners  reflected  them. 

His  fondness  for  the  military  profession  began 
early,  and  was  stimulated  by  the  condition  of  the 
country,  though  the  tastes  of  the  leading  men  of  Vir- 
ginia could  never  be  made  soldierly.  Virginia  was 
always  an  uumilitary  State.  His  elder  brother, 
Major  Lawrence  Washington,  a  powerful  man  in 
those  parts,  was  of  a  soldierly  turn.  So  at  fourteen, 
George  procured  a  midshipman's  warrant,  and  left 
school.  It  is  said  his  luggage  was  put  on  board  the 
ship.  But  at  the  last  moment  his  mother  refused  her 
consent :  he  must  not  be  a  British  naval  officer. 
On  how  small  a  hinge  turns  the  destiny  of  how  great 
a  man !  He  lived  with  his  brother  Lawrence  for 
about  two  years  more,  and  studied  geometry  and 
trigonometry  enough  to  become  a  practical  surveyor 
of  land.  His  early  Field-Books,  while  a  learner,  are 
said  to  be  models  of  neat  accuracy.  They  contain 
plottings  of  the  fields  about  his  home  or  school- 
house. 


WASHINGTON.  83 

In  the  autumn  of  1747,  before  he  was  quite  six- 
teen, he  left  school,  yet  residing  with  his  brother 
Lawrence  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  continued  his  hum- 
ble mathematical  studies.  He  was  a  public  land 
surveyor  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  His  manuscript 
Book  of  Surveys  begins  the  22d  January,  1749,  and  is 
still  extant.  When  he  was  about  sixteen,*  it  seems 
he  fancied  himself  in  love  with  a  maiden  whose  name 
has  perished,  but  who  gave  his  boyish  heart  no  little 
puerile  unhappiness.  He  complains  that  she  "  is 
pitiless  of  my  griefs  and  woes."  The  course  of  his 
true  love  not  running  smooth,  but  being  crossed  as 
usual,  like  other  bashful  young  men  he  sought  to 
improve  its  flow  by  stringing  such  rhymes  as  could 
be  had  or  made,  and  he  talks  of  his 

"  Poor,  restless  heart, 
Wounded  by  Cupid's  dart." 

But  he  survived  this  affliction,  and  only  his  melan- 
choly verses  remain  to  tell  the  tale.  He  calls  his 
flame  his  "  Lowland  Beauty."  It  is  said  she  was  a 
Miss  Grimes,  subsequently  wife  of  Mr.  Lee,  and  the 
mother  of  General  Henry  Lee,  who  was  a  favorite 
with  Washington.  A  little  later  another  maiden, 
Miss  Carey,  created  mischief  in  his  heart,  to  which 
some  drafts  of  letters,  still  to  be  read  in  his  journal, 

*  Irving,  who  is  often  inaccurate,  says  at  "  fifteen."  The  more 
careful  Sparks  says  "  seventeen."  Compare  Irving,  i.  34,  with 
Sparks,  i.  78. 


84  WASHINGTON. 

bear  fruitful  witness.  He  complains  that  her  pres- 
ence "  revives  my  former  passion  for  your  '  Lowland 
Beauty.'  Were  I  to  live  more  retired  from  young 
women,  I  might,  in  some  measure,  alleviate  my  sor- 
rows by  burying  that  chaste  and  troublesome  passion 
in  the  grave  of  oblivion."  It  seems  he  never  told 
his  love,  but  absence,  business,  fox-hunting  at  length 
cured  him,  and  maidens  and  whining  verses  forever 
disappeared  from  his  journal,  which,  instead,  is  filled 
up  with  details  of  surveying. 

His  early  life  afforded  slender  means  for  acquiring 
knowledge  of  books,  literature,  science,  or  any  en- 
larged ideas.  Yet  it  gave  him  a  good  opportunity 
for  learning  practical  details  of  American  life,  and 
for  the  development  of  character.  He  was  much  in 
the  fields,  fond  of  athletic  sports,  riding,  hunting, 
leaping,  fencing,  and  the  like.  His  mother  was  a 
woman  of  rather  a  severe  and  hard  character,  with  a 
high  temper  and  a  spirit  of  command,  which  her  son 
inherited.  She  was  a  good  manager,  a  practical 
housekeeper,  prudent  and  thrifty,  an  exact  disciplina- 
rian, reserved  and  formal  in  her  manners.  When 
Lafayette  visited  her  in  1777,  he  found  the  thrifty 
farmer's  widow  at  work  in  her  garden,  with  an  old 
sun-bonnet  on  her  head ;  and  she  had  the  good  sense 
not  to  change  her  working  dress  when  she  came  to 
receive  the  courtly  friend  of  American  Liberty.  She 
was  a  woman  of  few  books,  —  perhaps  of  only  one,— 


WASHINGTON.  85 

w  Sir  Matthew  Hale's  Contemplations,  Divine  and 
Moral,"  which  her  son  reverently  kept  till  his  own 
death.  She  plainly  had  a  great  influence  upon  Wash- 
ington. 

He  continued  in  his  business  of  land  surveying 
for  about  three  years,  till  he  was  nineteen  years  old, 
and  thus  passed  his  youth.  He  was  not  brought  up 
on  Books,  but  on  the  Breast  of  things.  Great  duties 
came  on  him  early.  He  learned  self-command  and 
self-reliance.  His  education  was  not  costly  but  pre- 
cious. It  is  doubtful  whether  any  King  in  all  Chris- 
tendom, in  the  eighteenth  century,  had  so  good  a 
preparation  for  the  great  art  to  rule  a  State  as  this 
farmer's  son  picked  up  in  the  rough  life  on  the  fron- 
tier of  civilization  in  Virginia. 

II.  His  early  military  life  began  at  the  age  of 
nineteen  (1751),  and  lasted  about  seven  years,  with 
various  interruptions,  till  1758.  He  was  occupied  in 
raising  and  drilling  the  soldiers,  and  commanding 
them  in  their  rude  warfare  against  the  Indians  and 
the  French.  He  was  sent  across  the  Alleghanies  to 
the  Ohio  River  on  business  of  great  importance. 
But  as  the  British  Government  treated  the  officers 
of  the  local  militia  with  contempt,  upon  the  formal 
declaration  of  the  war  he  resigned  his  post,  and  be- 
came a  volunteer  in  General  Braddock's  army  in 
1754.  In  this  he  held  the  rank  of  Colonel,  and  was 


86  WASHINGTON. 

stationed  on  the  frontier  of  Maryland.  Here,  for  the 
first  time,  he  saw  regular  soldiers,  well  disciplined 
and  accustomed  to  a  soldier's  life.  His  previous  ex- 
posure had  made  him  familiar  with  the  wild  coun- 
try in  Western  Virginia  and  in  Pennsylvania,  and  also 
with  the  Indian  mode  of  fighting.  The  "  frontier 
Colonel "  of  twenty-three  had  a  military  knowledge 
which,  in  this  expedition,  was  worth  more  than  all 
Braddock  had  gathered  from  the  splendid  strategic 
parades  of  England  and  Holland.  Had  Washington's 
counsel  been  followed,  the  expedition  would  have 
been  successful.  After  Braddock's  disastrous  defeat, 
Washington  was  appointed  Commander-iu-Chief  of  the 
Forces  of  Virginia,  with  the  rank  of  Colonel,  and  held 
the  office  till  the  return  of  peace  in  1758.  His  posi- 
tion was  singularly  difficult.  First,  because  the  Eng- 
lish Governor  Diuwiddie,  his  chief,  was  ignorant  and 
ostentatious,  at  once  capricious  and  obstinate,  domi- 
neering, now  commanding  and  then  countermanding, 
with  no  reason  in  either  case.  He  both  despised  and 
hated  the  American  Colonies,  and,  with  gross  inso- 
lence, trampled  on  the  young  men  of  eminent  talents. 
He  vexed,  thwarted,  and  outraged  Washington  con- 
tinually. Second,  the  Virginia  Legislature,  who 
voted  the  money  and  the  men,  was  by  no  means 
high-minded,  but  parsimonious  and  short-sighted, 
and  had  besides  a  weak  and  inefficient  military  sys- 
tem. Third,  the  Virginians  did  not  make  either 


WASHINGTON.  87 

good  soldiers  or  good  officers.  It  was  difficult  to 
obtain  recruits  for  the  rank  and  file  of  his  little 
army.  When  found,  they  were  idle,  wasteful,  impa- 
tient of  discipline,  and  continually  deserting,  which 
the  civil  authorities  encouraged  them  to  do.  Many 
of  the  officers  were  ignorant,  idle,  jealous,  disobe- 
dient, and  tyrannical.  Washington  must  create  both 
the  body  and  the  soul  of  his  army,  and  even  the  legis- 
lative disposition  to  support  it.  It  is  hard  to  con- 
ceive a  more  trying  position.  He  stood  in  a  cow- 
ardly army,  and  had  on  one  side  an  imbecile  admin- 
istration, an  obstinate  executive,  and  a  miserly 
legislature ;  on  the  other,  a  people  parsimonious,  and 
seemingly  indifferent  to  their  own  welfare.  While 
the  Indians  were  ravaging  the  border,  and  driving 
whole  towns  of  people  away  from  their  homes,  he 
was  obliged  to  impress  soldiers,  and  to  seize  Prov- 
inces by  force.  He  dared  not  venture  to  part  with 
any  of  his  white  men  for  any  distance,  says  the  Gov- 
ernor, as  he  must  have  a  watchful  eye  on  the  negro 
slaves.  His  army  was  always  ill  fed  and  ill  clad. 
He  complains  continually  of  a  perpetual  lack  of  pro- 
visions, clothing,  and  even  shoes.  "  Scarcely  a  man 
has  shoes  or  stockings,  or  a  hat."  He  finds  fault  with 
his  "  whooping,  hallooing  gentlemen-soldiers."  Din- 
widdie  treated  him  ill,  because  he  complained,  and 
sometimes  answered  him  with  capricious  cruelty. 
Amid  all  these  difficulties,  the  youth  of  twenty-two 


88  WASHINGTON. 

to  twenty-six  went  on  with  coolness,  bravery,  and 
moderation,  and  rarely  overstepped  his  duty.  Some- 
times his  discipline  was  a  little  severe.  If  a  soldier 
swore,  he  had  twenty-five  lashes ;  five  hundred  for 
quarrelling  and  fighting;  one  hundred  for  drunk- 
enness. Desertion  was  punished  with  death.  His 
authority  was  great.  The  selfishness  and  cowardice 
of  the  people  were  disgusting.  From  natural  dis- 
position he  loved  the  exercise  of  power.  He  com- 
plains, "No  order  is  obeyed  but  such  as  a  party  of 
soldiers,  or  my  own  drawn  sword,  enforces.  With- 
out this,  not  a  single  horse,  for  the  most  earnest 
occasion,  can  be  had.  To  such  a  pitch  was  the  inso- 
lence of  the  people  carried  by  having  every  point 
conceded  to  them."  But  he  was  singularly  careful 
to  defer  to  the  civil  authority  when  possible.  If  the 
right  was  doubtful,  the  conscientious  young  soldier 
left  it  to  be  exercised  by  the  magistrate,  not  by  the 
military  arm.  This  is  to  be  noted,  because  it  is  so  rare 
for  military  men  to  abstain  from  tyranny,  especially 
for  young  soldiers.  And,  in  fact,  it  is  hard  for  such, 
since,  naturally,  they  incline  to  quick  methods  and 
severe  measures. 

His  seven  years'  apprenticeship  in  that  terrible  war, 
from  1751  to  1758,  was  an  admirable  discipline  to  fit 
him  for  greater  trials,  in  a  wider  and  more  conspicu- 
ous field.  The  French  War  was  the  school  for  the 
American  Revolution.  Here  this  great  scholar  took 


WASHINGTON.  89 

his  first  lessons.  He  learned  caution,  reserve,  mod- 
eration, and  that  steady  perseverance  which  so  marked 
his  later  life. 

In  1756,  in  the  winter,  he  was  sent  to  Philadel- 
phia, New  York,  and  Boston  on  military  business. 
Tradition  reports  that  he  fell  in  love  with  another 
young  lady  at  New  York,  but  the  affair  blew  over, 
and  came  to  nought. 

III.  From  the  last  week  in  December,  1758,  till 
the  15th  June,  1775,  Washington  had  no  direct  part 
in  military  affairs.  On  January  6,  1759,  he  married 
the  rich  and  handsome  widow  of  Mr.  Custis,  and 
three  months  after  went  to  live  on  his  large  farm  at 
Mount  Vernon,  where  he  continued  mainly  busy  with 
the  common  affairs  of  a  Virginia  gentleman  of  large 
estate.  .He  attended  to  his  farming,  raising  crops 
there,  and  disposing  of  them  in  London.  He  bought 
and  sold  land,  of  which  he  owned  large  tracts,  chiefly 
in  the  unsettled  parts  of  the  Province.  He  visited  the 
wealthy  people  of  Virginia  a  good  deal ;  was  often 
at  Williamsburg,  the  capital  of  the  Colony,  a  town  of 
about  fifteen  hundred  or  two  thousand  inhabitants. 
He  received  much  company  at  his  own  house.  Most 
of  the  distinguished  men  of  Virginia  and  Maryland, 
including  the  royal  Governor,  were  there  in  these 
fifteen  or  sixteen  years.  His  wife's  relations  he  sel- 
dom saw  more  than  once  a  year,  they  lived  so  far 
away. 


90  WASHINGTON. 

We  usually  conceive  of  Washington  as  a  public 
man,  sternly  occupied  with  most  important  concerns  ; 
but  from  1759  to  1774  he  was  mainly  free  from  all 
great  public  duties  or  cares.  He  could  employ  his 
time  as  he  liked.  His  diary,  kept  on  the  blank 
leaves  of  an  almanac,  and  still  preserved,  shows  how 
almost  every  day  was  spent.  From  this  and  his 
letters,  then  not  very  numerous,  we  see  how  he 
passed  that  period.  He  was  active  in  parish  affairs, 
—  a  vestryman  in  two  churches;  one  at  Pohick, 
seven  miles  off,  the  other  at  Alexandria,  ten  miles  off*. 
He  attended  at  one  of  them  every  Sunday,  when  the 
weather  and  the  Virginia  roads  permitted.  He  kept 
a  four-horse  coach,  with  a  driver,  postilion,  and  foot- 
man,—  all  negro  slaves,  all  in  Washington  livery, — 
and  lived  after  the  old  style  of  Virginia  elegance,  in 
a  great,  but  rather  uncomfortable  house,  surrounded 
by  negro  slaves. 

At  first,  his  dress  was  plain  and  cheap.  Thus,  in 
October,  1747,  he  records  in  his  diary  that  he  deliv- 
ered to  the  washerwoman  "  two  shirts,  the  one  marked 
G.  W. ,  the  other  not  marked ;  one  pair  of  hose  and 
one  band,  to  be  washed  against  the  November  courts 
in  Frederic  County."  In  his  backwoods  fighting,  he 
was  often  dressed  in  the  Indian  style,  as  were  also 
many  of  his  soldiers.  He  found  it  most  convenient. 
But  he  afterwards  acquired  a  taste  for  fine  dress  from 
his  intercourse  with  British  officers.  So,  in  1756, 


WASHINGTON.  91 

he  orders  from  England  "  two  complete  livery  suits 
for  servants  (that  is,  for  his  slaves),  with  a  Spanish 
cloak,  the  trimmings  and  faces  of  scarlet,  and  a  scarlet 
waistcoat,  and  two  silver-laced  hats  ;  one  set  of  horse 
furniture,  with  livery  lace,  with  the  Washington  coat 
on  the  housings ;  three  gold  and  scarlet  sword  knots ; 
three  silver  and  blue  of  the  same ;  one  fashionable 
gold-laced  hat."  The  next  year,  his  book  records  an 
order  on  Mr.  Eichard  Washington,  a  London  trader, 
for  "  one  piece  of  French  cambric ;  two  pair  of  fine 
worked  ruffles,  at  twenty  shillings  a  pair :  half  a  doz- 
en pair  of  thread  hose,  at  five  shillings.  If  worked 
ruffles  should  be  out  of  fashion,  send  such  as  are  not 
worked ;.  as  much  of  the  best  superfine  blue  cotton 
velvet  as  will  make  a  coat,  waistcoat,  and  breeches 
for  a  tall  man,  with  fine  silk  buttons  to  suit  it,  and 
all  other  necessary  trimmings  and  linings,  together 
with  gaiters  for  the  breeches ;  six  pair  of  the  very 
neatest  shoes ;  six  pair  of  gloves,  three  pairs  of  which 
to  be  proper  for  riding,  and  to  have  slit  tops,  the 
whole  larger  than  the  middle  size." 

At  a  later  day,  articles  of  woman's  attire  appear  in 
the  orders.  Thus,  in  1759,  after  marriage,  we  find 
"a  salmon-colored  Talby  of  the  enclosed  pattern, 
with  satin  flounces,  to  be  made  in  a  sack  and  coat ; 
one  cap,  handkerchief  and  tucker,  and  ruffles  to  be 
made  of  Brussels  lace  or  Point,  to  cost  twenty 
pounds"  (one  hundred  dollars).  Then  follow  "fine 


92  WASHINGTON. 

flounced  lawn  aprons ;  women's  white  silk  hose,  and 
two  pair  of  satin  shoes,  one  black  one  white,  of  the 
smallest  sizes ;  a  fashionable  Hatt  or  Bonnet ;  kid 
gloves,  kid  mitts,  knots,  breast  knots,  woven  silk 
lacings  (for  stays) .  Red  minikin  pins  and  hair  pins  ; 
perfumed  powder;  Scotch  snuff  and  Strasbourg 
snuff;  Phillippe  shoe-buckles,"  &c.,  &c.*  These 
little  good-for-nothing  straws  show  that  for  a  while 
the  great  Washington's  stream  turned  off  from  its 
straight  course,  and  spread  out  into  broad  shallows, 
trifling  with  its  flowery  shores.  He  was  a  rich  farm- 
er, a  country  gentleman,  raising  tobacco,  and  send- 
ing it  to  England  for  sale  ;  managing  his  own  affairs 
with  diligence  and  shrewdness;  keeping  his  own  ac- 
counts with  great  neatness  of  detail. f  His  family 
seems  to  have  been  rather  fond  of  dress,  with  a  great 
desire  to  be  "  fashionable,"  and  made  a  considerable 
show  in  their  little  provincial  world,  where  life  was 
dull  and  monotonous  to  a  terrible  degree,  being  re- 
lieved only  by  visitors  and  visiting. 

How  did  he  pass  his  time  ?    His  diary  shows. 


*  Kirkland's  Washington,  178-180.  Afterwards  he  changes  again, 
and  writes  Richard  Washington,  "  I  want  neither  lace  nor  embroid- 
ery. Plain  clothes,  with  gold  or  silver  buttons,  if  worn,  are  a  genteel 
dress,  and  are  all  that  I  desire."  Yet  he  complains  that  his  clothes 
have  never  fitted  him  well.  Sparks,  ii.  337. 

t  Sparks,  i.  109.  Letter  to  Robert  Cary.  Sparks,  ii.  328.  Agri- 
cultural papers.  Sparks,  xii.  Appendix. 


WASHINGTON.  93 

"January  1st,  1770.     At  home  alone. 

"2d  January.  At  home  all  day.  Mr.  Peake 
dined  here. 

"3d.     At  home  all  day  alone. 

"  4th.  Went  a  hunting  with  John  Custis  and  Lund 
Washington.  Started  a  deer,  and  then  a  fox,  but  got 
neither. 

"  5th.  Went  to  Muddy  Hole  and  Dogue  Run.  Car- 
ried the  dogs  with  me,  but  found  nothing.  Mr.  War- 
ner Washington  and  Mr.  Thurston  came  in  the  even- 
ing. 

"  6th.  The  two  Colonel  Fairfaxes  dined  here,  and 
Mr.  R.  Alexander,  and  the  two  gentlemen  that  came 
the  day  before.  The  Belvoir  family  (Fairfaxes)  re- 
turned after  dinner. 

"  7th.  Mr.  Washington  and  Mr.  Thurston  went  to 
Belvoir. 

"  8th.  Went  a  hunting  with  Mr.  Alexander,  J. 
Custis,  and  Lund  Washington.  Killed  a  fox  (a  dog 
one) ,  after  three  hours'  chase.  Mr.  Alexander  went 
away,  and  Mr.  Thurston  came  in  the  afternoon. 

"  9th.  Went  a  ducking,  but  got  nothing,  the  creek 
and  rivers  being  froze.  Robert  Adam  dined  here  and 
returned. 

"  10th.  Mr.  Washington  and  Mr.  Thurston  set  off 
home.  I  went  hunting  on  the  Neck,  and  visited  the 
plantation  there,  and  killed  a  fox,  after  treeing  it 
three  times,  and  chasing  it  about  three  hours. 

"  llth.     At  home  all  day  alone. 

"  12th.     Ditto,  ditto. 

"  13th.  Dined  at  Belvoir,  with  Mrs.  Washington 
and  Mr.  and  Miss  Custis,  and  returned  afterwards. 


94  WASHINGTON. 

"14th.  At  home  all  day  alone.*  Bottled  thirty- 
five  dozen  cider.  Fitted  a  two-eyed  plough,  eyed 
instead  of  a  duck-bill  plough,  and  with  much  diffi- 
culty made  my  chariot  wheel-horses  plough.  Put 
the  pole-end  horses  into  the  plough  in  the  morning, 
and  put  in  the  postilion  and  hind  horse  in  the  after- 
noon ;  but,  the  ground  being  well  swarded  over,  and 
very  heavy  ploughing,  I  repented  putting  them  in  at 
all,  for  fear  it  should  give  them  a  habit  of  stopping 
in  the  chariot.  Peter  (my  smith)  and  I,  after  several 
efforts  to  make  a  plough  upon  a  new  model,  partly 
of  my  own  contrivance,  were  fain  to  give  it  over, 
at  least  for  the  present." 

A  week  later  we  find,  "  Spent  the  greater  part  of 
the  day  in  making  a  new  plough  of  my  own  inven- 
tion." f  His  household  books  contain  the  names  of 
his  horses  and  his  dogs.  He  does  not  seem  to  have 
busied  himself  "with  any  intellectual  pursuits.  Books 
seldom  appear  in  his  orders  for  supplies  from  Eng- 
land. His  diary  contains  no  philosophic  thought,  — 
nothing  which  indicates  an  inquiring  mind,  only  a 
mind  attentive  to  the  facts  of  every-day  life,  and 
scrupulously  diligent  in  recording  things  of  no  great 
consequence.  From  this  it  appears  that  it  took  his 
grist-mill  fifty-five  minutes  to  grind  four  pecks  of 
corn,  but  he  was  surprised  to  find  that  it  made  five 
pecks  of  Indian  meal.  This  is  the  only  scientific  ob- 
servation I  have  heard  of  in  his  diary.  His  account 

*  Kirkland,  p.  184.  f  Kirkland,  p.  191. 


WASHINGTON.  95 

of  the  way  his  slaves  did  their  work  is  amusing  as 
well  as  instructive. 

While  still  in  active  military  service,  in  1758,  he 
was  chosen  member  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Bur- 
gesses for  the  next  year.  The  poll  cost  him  thirty- 
nine  pounds  six  shillings.  Among  the  articles  neces- 
sary for  the  election,  his  book  reads,  a  hogshead  and 
a  barrel  of  punch,  thirty-five  gallons  of  wine,  forty- 
three  of  strong  beer  and  cider.*  In  the  Virginia 
Assembly  he  was  punctual  in  his  attendance,  modest 
in  his  deportment,  but  seldom  spoke,  and  never 
made  a  set  speech.  He  was  distinguished  for  sound 
judgment  and  undeviating  sincerity.  When  trou- 
bles came,  and  the  British  Government  sought  to 
oppress  the  Colonies,  Puritanic  New  England  began 
the  complaint,  and  Virginia  did  not  tamely  submit. 
A  man  of  details  and  habits,  more  than  of  ideas  or 
of  philosophic  principles,  Washington  was  not  one 
of  the  first  to  move,  but  at  length  joined  readily 
and  firmly  in  all  the  heroic  acts  to  which  the  wild  and 
eloquent  Patrick  Henry  stirred  the  Virginia  Legis- 
lature. He  took  a  prominent  part  in  opposing  the 
Stamp  Act,  and  other  oppressive  measures  of  the 
British  King,  after  the  Boston  Port  Bill.  In  the  ex- 
traordinary Convention,  it  is  said  Washington  made 
the  most  eloquent  speech  that  was  ever  made,  "  and 
said,  I  will  raise  one  thousand  men,  and  subsist 

*  Sparks,  ii.  297. 


96  WASHINGTON. 

them  at  my  own  expense,  and  inarch  myself  at  their 
head  for  the  relief  of  Boston."*  In  1769  he  was 
thinking  of  the  possibility  of  a  fight  between  the 
Mother  and  Daughter,  f 

The  first  Continental  Congress  met  at  Philadelphia, 
on  September  5,  1774.  Washington  was  one  of  the 
six  delegates  from  Virginia,  but  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  much  distinguished.  Yet  Mr.  Wirt  re- 
lates that  Patrick  Henry  said,  "In  respect  to  solid 
information  and  sound  judgment,  Colonel  Washing- 
ton is  unquestionably  the  greatest  man  on  that  floor."  J 

He  was  a  member  of  the  second  Congress,  which 
met  10th  May  1775.  This  was  after  the  battle  of 
Lexington ;  and  he  appeared  there  every  day  dressed 
in  his  military  uniform.  Like  the  war  paint  of  an 
Indian,  his  soldierly  dress  was  a  figure  of  speech,  to 
tell  that  the  time  of  compromise  had  passed  by,  and 
the  question  must  be  settled,  not  by  words,  but  by 
blows. 

IV.  On  June  15,  1775,  at  the  suggestion  of  John 
Adams,  Washington  was  chosen  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  American  Army.  Political  motives  determined 
the  choice,  fixing  it  on  a  Virginian.  This  was  to 
conciliate  the  South,  and  make  it  friendly  to  the  war. 

*  Adams's  Writings,  ii.  360. 

f  Sparks,  ii.  351,  400  (1774) ;  i.  118. 

J  Sparks,  i.  132. 


WASHINGTON.  97 

His  personal  character,  his  wealth,  his  knowledge, 
moderation,  skill,  and  integrity  drew  to  him  the  far- 
reaching,  honest  eyes  of  John  Adams.  New  Eng- 
land sagacity  and  self-denial  alike  suggested  the 
choice.  But  New  England  ambition  was  not  con- 
tent. In  the  French  War  New  England  had  done 
much  service,  and  had  won  laurels.  The  Southern 
States  did  nothing.  Washington  was  the  only  officer 
who  had  acquired  any  distinction ;  and  he  less  than 
several  men  from  the  Eastern  States.  They  natural- 
ly found  fault.  Hancock  wanted  the  post.  Cer- 
tainly he  had  done  more  than  Colonel  Washington 
to  promote  the  Revolution  ;  and  he  long  cherished  a 
grudge,  I  think,  against  Adams  for  his  nomination 
of  Washington.  The  choice  was  a  thoughtful  com- 
promise. New  England  overcame  her  prejudices 
against  a  Southern  man.  The  modest  Virginian  de- 
clared to  Congress,  "  I  beg  it  may  be  remembered 
by  every  gentleman  in  the  room  that  I  declare,  with 
the  utmost  sincerity,  I  do  not  think  myself  equal  to 
the  command  I  am  honored  with."  *  He  declined 
the  compensation  of  five  hundred  dollars  a  month, 
and  said,  "As  no  pecuniary  considerations  would 
have  tempted  me  to  accept  this  arduous  employ- 
ment, ...  I  do  not  wish  to  make  any  profit  from 
it.  I  will  keep  an  exact  account  of  my  expenses, 

*  See  the  debate  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  in  the 
Boston  Daily  Advertiser  of  17th  June,  1858. 

7 


98  WASHINGTON. 

•which  I  doubt  not  the  Nation  will  discharge,  and  that 
is  all  I  desire."  He  wrote  a  letter  to  his  wife  —  the 
only  one  that  he  wrote  which  is  preserved  —  con- 
cerning his  election,  and  his  acceptance  of  the  office, 
and  enclosing  his  will,  just  made.  "As  it  has  been  a 
kind  of  destiny,"  says  the  modest  man,  "that  has 
thrown  me  upon  this  service,  I  shall  hope  that  my 
undertaking  is  designed  to  answer  some  good 
purpose."  He  left  Mount  Vernon  in  May,  1775. 
He  did  not  enter  his  own  doors  again  till  January, 
1784. 

The  new  Commander-in-Chief  left  Philadelphia  June 
21,  reached  Cambridge  on  the  2d  July,  and  took  com- 
mand of  the  army  the  next  day.  He  found  a  mot- 
ley collection  of  troops ;  about  seventeen  thousand 
men,  more  than  three  thousand  sick,  all  ill-dressed, 
ill-armed,  ill-disciplined,  and  some  with  no  muskets. 
The  line  extended  fifteen  or  sixteen  miles,  by  the 
then  existing  roads,  from  Charlestown  Neck  to  Rox- 
bury.  Most  of  the  soldiers  had  enlisted  for  a  short 
time.  Few  were  willing  to  submit  to  the  self-de- 
nial and  stern  discipline  of  actual  war.  The  officers 
were  ignorant  of  their  duty.  General  Ward,  the 
previous  Commander-in-Chief,  was  old,  and  almost 
imbecile  ;  another  General  kept  his  chamber,  talking 
"  learnedly  of  cathartics  and  emetics."  The  camp  was 
full  of  jealousies,  rivalries,  resentments,  petty  am- 
bitions ;  men  thinking  much  for  themselves,  little 


WASHINGTON.  99 

for  their  imperilled  Nation.  It  is  always  so.  We 
greatly  misunderstand  the  difficulties  of  the  time. 
About  one  third  of  the  people  in  the  Colonies  were 
openly  or  secretly  Tories.  Self-denial  is  never  easy, 
and  then  much  of  it  was  needful.  Their  trials  were 
often  borne  grudgingly,  and  with  many  attempts  to 
shift  the  burdens.  Had  such  a  spirit  prevailed  as  our 
rhetoricians  and  orators  of  the  Fourth  of  July  tell  us 
of,  then  the  Revolution  had  all  been  over  in  a  twelve- 
month, and  every  red-coat  had  been  driven  into  the 
sea.  But  they  were  as  mean  and  selfish  in  1775  as 
they  have  been  ever  since.  The  battle  of  Lexington 
did  not  change  human  nature.  Washington  must 
create  an  army,  create  even  the  raw  material  of  it. 
Congress  had  no  adequate  conception  of  the  cost  of 
war,  and  dealt  out  money  with  a  stingy  hand.  It 
had  little  enough  to  give,  and  a  war  is  of  guineas. 
The  people  trusted  in  a  volunteer  militia  serving  but 
a  few  months,  and  were  afraid  of  a  standing  army 
and  a  military  tyrant.  Nothing  was  ready,  no  clothes, 
tents,  cannon ;  even  powder  was  scarce,  and  at  one 
time  there  were  not  seven  cartridges  to  a  man.  The 
sentinels  returning  from  duty  were  not  allowed  to 
fire  their  pieces,  but  drew  the  charge. 

In  Boston,  there  lay  the  British  Army,  superior  in 
numbers,  well  drilled,  armed  well,  and  provided  with 
all  that  wealth  could  buy  or  knowledge  could  devise. 
We  talk  of  the  heroism  of  1776.  We  do  not  exag- 


100  WASHINGTON. 

gerate.  No  Nation  was  ever  more  valiant  and  self- 
denying.  But  Washington  complains  "of  an  egre- 
gious want  of  public  spirit,"  of  "  fertility  in  the  low 
arts  of  obtaining  advantages."  There  were  noble 
men,  who  would  give  up  all  their  own  property  for 
the  public  good ;  but  there  were  others  mean  and 
base,  who  would  take  all  from  the  public  for  their 
own  advantage.  Then,  as  now,  times  of  trouble  pro- 
duced a  Hancock,  an  Adams  :  but  how  seldom  !  The 
superior  property,  the  superior  education  was  on  the 
Tory  side.  Very  cool,  very  cautious  and  reserved, 
Washington  had  yet  the  zeal  of  an  enthusiast,  and 
hated  the  petty  selfishness  he  met.  He  was  not  al- 
ways quite  just  to  New  Englanders.  From  the  begin- 
ning of  July,  1775,  till  the  end  of  February,  1776, 
the  army  did  nothing.  How  could  it?  Often  reduced 
to  ten  thousand  men  !  Washington  improved  the 
intrenchments,  drilled  the  soldiers,  gave  unity  of  ac- 
tion to  the  whole  army.  Feeble  in  men,  and  supplied 
only  with  poor  and  inefficient  arms,  he  acted  on  the  de- 
fensive. But  in  one  night  he  clinched  the  industrial 
New  England  palm  with  a  mighty  fist,  and  on  the  sixth 
anniversary  of  the  Boston  Massacre,  smote  the  Brit- 
ish Army  a  deadly  blow.  The  enemy  soon  left  New 
England,  and  took  twelve  hundred  Tories  along  with 
them.  A  hostile  troop  has  appeared  in  Massachu- 
setts but  once  since,  —  when  it  tiled  through  the  streets 
of  Boston,  and  did  its  wicked  work,  with  none  to  lift 


WASHINGTON.  101 

an  arm,  slashing  the  citizens  with  coward  swords,  — 
a  wickedness  not  atoned  for  yet,  but  remembered 
against  the  day  of  reckoning.  In  New  England,  the 
people  dwelt  more  compactly  together  than  else- 
where in  the  Northern  States.  They  were  compara- 
tively rich,  educated,  and  very  industrious,  with  that 
disposition  for  military  affairs  belonging  to  men  fa- 
miliar with  the  French  and  Indian  Wars.  But,  after 
driving  the  British  from  Boston,  Washington  drew 
his  army  to  New  York,  and,  not  having  such  sup- 
port as  he  found  in  Massachusetts,  there  followed  a 
whole  year  of  disasters.  The  Americans  were  driven 
from  Long  Island.  Two  New  England  Brigades  of 
militia  ran  disgracefully  from  before  the  British  guns. 
Washington  abandoned  New  York.  Fort  Washington 
surrendered  to  the  enemy  nearly  three  thousand  sol- 
diers. The  flower  of  the  army,  with  a  great  quantity 
of  artillery,  ammunition,  and  stores,  were  lost.  The 
British  ships  sailed  far  up  the  Hudson  River,  once 
thought  to  be  impregnably  defended.  Washington 
retreated  through  the  Jerseys,  his  little  army  dwin- 
dling at  every  step  ;  without  intrenching  tools,  with- 
out tents,  and  with  few  blankets.  Many  of  the  sol- 
diers were  barefoot.  He  flew  over  the  Passaic,  over 
the  Raritan,  over  the  Delaware  Rivers.  At  Christ- 
mas, the  army  made  one  desperate  step  back  again, 
crossed  the  Delaware,  captured  many  soldiers  at 
Trenton ;  then  withdrew  into  the  mountains,  and 


102  WASHINGTON. 

into  the  darkness  of  night  and  the  snows  of  winter. 
So  ended  the  first  campaign.  The  very  January  af- 
ter the  Declaration  of  Independence,  with  three  thou- 
sand or  four  thousand  men,  Washington  crept  into 
his  winter  quarters  at  Morristown.  What  an  army 
for  such  a  work !  The  difficulties  seemed  immense. 
The  Midland  States  were  full  of  Tories,  —  cruel,  re- 
vengeful, and  malignant.  Some  of  the  American  Gen- 
erals were  of  doubtful  faith.  General  Lee  had  pur- 
posely suffered  himself  to  be  taken  prisoner,  that 
he  might  concert  a  treason  *  worse  than  Arnold's. 
Congress,  discouraged,  left  Philadelphia  and  fled  to 
Baltimore.  Rhode  Island  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  Many  respectable  citizens  in  the  Midland 
States  went  over  to  the  British.  The  Quakers  hin- 
dered the  American  cause.  The  time  of  most  of  the 
soldiers  expired.  Recruits  came  in  but  slowly,  and 
a  new  army  must  be  created.  Still  Washington  did 
not  despair! 

The  next  spring  he  regained  the  Jerseys,  but  was 
soon  forced  to  retire.  Pennsylvania  then,  as  now, 
the  most  ignorant  of  the  Northern  States,  with  its 
Quakers,  did  little  for  Independence.  The  prin- 
cipal citizens  were  not  friendly  to  the  war,  or  to 
its  object.  Philadelphia  was  almost  a  Tory  town. 
Washington  had  no  New  England  energy  close  at 
hand  to  furnish  him  provisions  or  men.  He  lost  the 

*  The  fact  has  only  just  come  to  light. 


WASHINGTON.  103 

battle  of  Brandy  wine,  failed  at  Germantowu.  Phil- 
adelphia fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  During 
the  winter  of  1777-78  he  went  into  winter  quarters 
at  Valley  Forge.  What  a  terrible  winter  it  was  for 
the  hopes  of  America !  In  1776  he  had  an  army  of 
forty-seven  thousand  men,  and  the  Nation  was  ex- 
hausted by  the  great  effort.  In  1777  it  was  less 
than  twenty  thousand  men.  Women,  who  had  once 
melted  their  pewter  plates  into  bullets,  could  not  do 
it  a  second  time.  At  Valley  Forge,  within  a  day's 
march  of  the  enemy's  headquarters,  there  were  not 
twelve  thousand  soldiers.  That  winter  they  lay  on 
the  ground.  So  scarce  were  blankets,  that  many 
were  forced  to  sit  up  all  night  by  their  fires.  At 
one  time,  more  than  a  thousand  soldiers  had  not  a 
shoe  to  their  feet.  You  could  trace  their  march  by 
the  blood  which  their  naked  feet  left  in  the  ice.  At 
one  time,  more  than  one  fourth  of  all  the  troops  there 
are  reported  as  t(  unfit  for  duty,  because  barefoot  or 
otherwise  naked."  Washington  offered  a  prize  for 
the  best  substitute  for  shoes  made  of  untanned  hides  ! 
Even  provisions  failed.  Once  there  was  a  famine  in 
the  camp,  and  Washington  must  seize  provisions  by 
violence,  or  the  arn^  would  die.  He  ordered  the 
Pennsylvania  farmers  to  thrash  out  the  wheat  and  sell 
it  to  him,  or  he  would  take  it,  and  pay  them  only  for 
the  straw  !  Congress  was  disheartened.  The  men 
of  ability  staid  at  home,  and  weaklings  took  their 


104  WASHINGTON. 

place.  For  some  time  there  were  only  twenty-one 
members,  and  it  was  difficult  to  assemble  a  quorum 
of  States  for  business.  Tories  abounded.  There 
were  cabals  against  Washington  in  the  army.  Mif- 
fliu,  Conway,  Gates,  Pickering,  Schuyler,  were  hos- 
tile ;  and  they  found  abundant  support  in  Congress. 
Samuel  Adams  distrusted  Washington.  So,  too,  did 
John  Adams.  James  Lovell,  of  Massachusetts,  and 
Eichard  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia,  were  not  more  friend- 
ly, and  far  less  honorable.  It  is  not  wholly  to  be  won- 
dered at.  Within  a  year  Washington  had  lost  New 
York  and  its  neighborhood,  —  lost  Philadelphia,  and 
all  the  strongholds  around  it.  He  had  gained  but 
one  victory  worth  naming,  that  at  Trenton.  In  the 
mean  time  Burgoyue,  an  able  soldier,  with  an  admi- 
rable army,  had  walked  into  a  trap  on  the  North 
River,  and  had  been  taken  by  Gates  and  the  North- 
ern Army,  who  were  most  of  them  militia  of  New  Eng- 
land. It  is  not  wonderful  that  men  doubted,  and 
thought  that  the  selfish,  mean-spirited,  and  loud-talk- 
ing General  Conway  would  do  better  than  the  mod- 
est Washington  to  command  the  Army.  Samuel 
Adams  wanted  democratic  rotation  in  office  that  the 
Genera]  should  be  hired  by  the  year !  If  he  had  not 
been  possessed  of  great  wealth,  and  cared  for  noth- 
ing, I  think  Washington's  command  had  come  to  an 
end  before  1778.  But  Dr.  Franklin  was  on  the  other 
side  of  the  sea,  and,  with  consummate  art,  he  had 


WASHINGTON.  105 

induced  the  French  Court  to  favor  America  with  con- 
tributions of  money  and  of  arms,  and  after  the  sur- 
render of  Burgoyne,  to  acknowledge  the  Indepen- 
dence of  the  United  States,  and  to  make  an  open 
treaty  of  alliance,  furnishing  America  with  money 
and  men,  artillery  and  stores.  Then,  first,  America 
began  to  uplift  her  drooping  head.  But  it  must  be 
confessed  that  when  she  found  that  a  foreign  Nation 
were  ready  to  assist  her,  she  was  the  less  willing  to 
raise  money  or  men,  or  otherwise  to  help  herself. 
She  was  fatigued,  and  wanted  to  rest. 

Within  our  moderate  limits  there  is  not  time  to  tell 
the  story  of  the  war  —  the  mingled  tale  of  nobleness, 
cowardice,  and  treachery.  Peace  came  at  last ;  and 
was  proclaimed  in  camp  on  the  19th  of  April,  1783, 
eight  years  after  the  battle  of  Lexington.  On  the  23d 
of  December,  Washington  returned  his  commission  to 
Congress,  and  presented  his  account  of  personal  ex- 
penses from  January  15,  1775,  to  that  date.  They 
were,  in  all,  sixty-four  thousand  three  hundred  and 
fifteen  dollars.  He  then  went  home  to  Mount  Ver- 
non,  and  attended  to  the  duties  of  private  life.  Dur- 
ing the  whole  war  the  nobleness  of  the  man  stood  out 
great  and  clear.  But  when  the  war  was  over  the 
soldiers  were  not  at  once  dismissed.  The  Nation  did 
not  seem  inclined  to  compensate  them  for  their  suffer- 
ings, losses,  or  even  for  their  expenses.  They  natu- 
rally became  irritated  because  the  money  was  thus 


106  WASHINGTON. 

withheld,  which  they  had  earned  by  such  toil  in  the 
grim  trials  of  battle.  Then  it  was  that  they  thought 
of  seeking  redress  by  their  own  armed  hand.  And 
then  it  was  that  Washington's  nobility  stood  out 
grander  than  ever  before.  He  placed  himself  between 
the  Nation  and  the  Army,  and  sought  and  found  jus- 
tice to  both. 

V.  The  beginning  of  1784  beheld  Washington  at 
Mount  Vernon  with  no  public  office.  For  almost 
eight  years  his  shadow  had  not  fallen  on  his  own 
threshold.  His  affairs  had  lapsed  into  some  decay, 
sp^te  of  the  prompt  and  vigilant  care  he  took  at  a 
distance.  "The  horse  is  fatted  by  its  master's  eye,"  * 
and  letters,  once  a  week  for  eight  years,  are  not  like 
the  daily  presence  of  the  owner.  The  active  habits 
of  public  office  were  on  him  still ;  and  when  he  woke 
at  daybreak,  or  before,  it  was  his  first  impression  to 
forecast  the  work  of  the  day,  till  he  remembered 
that  he  had  no  public  work.  But  public  cares  still 
lay  heavy  on  his  mighty  soul.  The  soldiers  were 
his  children  ;  and  still  ill  fed  by  the  Nation,  and  scat- 
tered abroad,  they  looked  to  him  for  help.  He  could 
give  sympathy,  if  nothing  more.  He  had  his  eye  on 
the  whole  Nation  personally,  not  officially ;  anxious 
for  the  universal  welfare.  His  correspondence  was 
immense.  He  attended  to  agriculture,  always  his 

*  "  Equus  saginatur  in  oculo  domini." 


WASHINGTON.  107 

favorite  pursuit ;  improved  his  lands,  introduced  bet- 
ter seeds  and  breeds  of  cattle.  He  exercised  a  great 
hospitality,  and  visitors  of  distinction  crowded  about 
his  mansion.  He  sought  to  improve  the  whole  State 
of  Virginia,  and  had  a  scheme  for  uniting,  by  a  canal, 
the  Potomac  and  James  Rivers  with  the  waters  be- 
yond the  Alleghany  Mountains.  He  took  a  deep  and 
hearty  interest  in  the  public  education  of  the  people, 
giving  both  money  and  time  for  that  purpose. 

America  was  then  in  a  sad  condition.  The  States 
were  free  from  England,  but  not  firmly  united. 
"Thirteen  staves,  and  ne'er  a  hoop,  do  not  make  a 
barrel."  The  destructive  work  of  liberation  had 
been  once  achieved  by  the  sword.  Next  must  come" 
the  constructive  work  of  Union.  Franklin's  plan 
of  Confederation,  first  proposed  in  1754,  afterwards 
offered  in  1775,  and  at  last  accepted,  with  many 
variations,  in  1778,  was  hardly  adequate  to  unite  the 
Nation,  even  when  war  pressed  these  thirteen  dis- 
similar members  together.  In  peace  they  soon  fell 
asunder.  The  old  Government  was  utterly  inade- 
quate. Congress  was  a  single  body,  composed  of  a 
single  House,  not  of  two  Houses,  as  now.  The 
vote  was  by  States.  Rhode  Island,  with  sixty  thou- 
sand, counted  as  much  as  Virginia,  with  six  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants.  There  was  no  Executive  Head. 
Congress  was  to  administer  its  own  laws.  There 
were  no  Judiciary,  no  organized  Departments  for 


108  WASHINGTON. 

war,  for  foreign  affairs,  or  for  interior  administra- 
tion. There  were  only  administrative  committees  of 
Congress. 

The  General  Government  could  not  raise  money  — 
could  not  pay  a  debt.  The  States  were  intensely 
jealous  of  each  other.  Men  called  Virginia,  or 
Carolina,  "  my  country,"  and  did  not  recognize  Amer- 
ica as  such.  It  was  a  great  work  to  organize  the 
Nation,  and  form  a  national  union  of  America,  while, 
at  the  same  time,  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  the  per- 
sonal freedom  of  individuals,  were  also  to  be  sacred- 
ly preserved.  How  could  the  Nation  found  a  firm 
central  Power,  which  was  indispensable,  and  yet  keep 
intact  the  local  self-government  which  each  State 
required,  and  to  which  it  had  become  accustomed. 
Unless  this  theorem  could  be  demonstrated  in  Ameri- 
ca, "Liberty"  would  become  a  mere  Latin  word, 
borrowed  from  the  French.  Tories  said,  "It  is  im- 
possible !  "  An  insurrection  had  already  broken  out 
in  Massachusetts,  which  frightened  the  best  men  in 
the  Nation,  making  John  Adams  and  Washington 
tremble,  and  doubt  democratic  institutions.  "  Would 
it  not  be  better  to  have  a  limited  monarchy,  an 
hereditary  Senate?"  So  men  talked.  The  Federal 
Convention  of  all  the  States  was  to  meet  at  Philadel- 
phia, May  14,  1787.  Many  able  men  were  chosen 
as  delegates,  Washington  among  them,  and  some 
very  weak  ones.  But  so  little  zeal  was  then  felt, 


WASHINGTON.  109 

that  on  that  day  only  two  States  —  Virginia  and 
Pennsylvania  —  appeared  to  be  represented  at  all. 
It  was  not  until  the  25th  May  that  seven  States,  the 
required  quorum  for  business,  appeared  by  their  dele- 
gates in  the  Convention,  and  then  Massachusetts  was 
represented  by  only  a  single  man.  Washington  was 
President  of  the  Convention,  but  it  does  not  appear 
that  he  took  any  prominent  part  in  making  the  Con- 
stitution. On  the  17th  of  September  the  work  was 
finished  and  signed  —  "  done  by  consent  of  the 
States."  I  think  no  member  of  the  Convention 
was  satisfied  with  it.  Nobody  thought  it  perfect. 
Franklin  and  Washington  disliked  much  of  it,  for 
opposite  reasons  perhaps.  Democratic  Mr.  Gerry 
opposed  it,  and  refused  to  sign  it.  Samuel  Adams, 
John  Hancock,  and  many  more,  not  members  of  the 
Convention,  were  also  hostile.  At  this  day  we  are 
not  likely  to  do  full  justice  to  its  authors,  represent- 
ing such  diverse  local  interests,  and  animated  by  such 
hostile  political  principles.  To  some  the  Constitution 
is  a  finality,  an  idol,  and  its  authors  inspired  men. 
To  others  it  is  "  a  covenant  with  death,"  and  its 
authors  proportionally  evil.  I  know  its  faults,  at 
least  some  of  them.  Time  will  no  doubt  develop 
others,  perhaps  yet  more  fatal.  I  see  its  victims. 
There  are  four  millions  of  them  in  the  United  States. 
I  blame  its  great  men,  especially  JFranklin,  the  great- 
est man  then  or  since  on  the  American  continent. 


110  WASHINGTON. 

But  I  see  their  difficulties,  and  remember  that  no- 
body is  so  wise  as  everybody,  and  that  now  is  a 
fool  to  the  ages  which  are  to  come.  There  was  a 
Monarchic  party,  who  wanted  a  strong  central  Gov- 
ernment. Alexander  Hamilton  was  the  ablest  rep- 
resentative of  that  tendency.  And  there  was  a 
Democratic  party,  which  contended  vigorously  for 
State  Eights,  and  wished  to  keep  all  popular  power, 
undelegated,  in  the  hands  of  the  people.  Jefferson 
was  the  typical  man  of  the  Democrats.  But  he 
was  out  of  the  country,  on  his  mission  to  France. 
There  really  was  a  danger  that  the  thirteen  States 
should  not  find  a  hoop  to  bind  them  all  into  a  well- 
proportioned  tub,  which  might  stand  on  its  own  bot- 
tom. But  the  States  accepted  the  Constitution,  one 
by  one,  adding  invaluable  amendments.  Seventy 
years  is  a  short  time  in  the  life  of  a  great  people, 
and  the  day  for  the  final  judgment  of  the  Constitu- 
tion has  not  yet  come. 

VI.  Washington  was  chosen  President.  With 
him  there  could  be  no  competitor  for  that  office. 
For  the  Vice-Presidency  there  might  be  many ;  for, 
while  it  was  plain  who  was  the  first  man  in  popular 
esteem,  it  was  not  equally  clear  who  was  the  second. 
But  John  Adams  was  chosen.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  Revolution,  Massachusetts  and  Virginia  went  side 
by  side.  So  in  the  beginning  of  the  Independent 


WASHINGTON.  Ill 

United  States  must  they  be  joined  in  the  administra- 
tion of  public  affairs.  It  was  very  difficult  to  con- 
struct the  new  Government.  All  must  be  made 
anew.  There  were  two  great  parties  in  the  Nation. 
The  Federalists,  who  were  friendly  to  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  inclined  to  a  strong  central  Government, 
some  of  them  perhaps  favoring  a  Monarchy  and 
an  Hereditary  Senate.  The  Anti-Federalists,  first 
called  "  Republicans,"  and  afterwards  "  Democrats," 
who  had  opposed  the  Constitution,  disliked  a  strong 
central  power,  and  relied  more  upon  the  local  self- 
government  of  the  States,  or  upon  the  individual 
man.  With  his  usual  sagacity,  Washington  selected 
the  best  political  talent  of  the  country  to  help  the 
great  work,  and  with  characteristic  fairness  he  chose 
men  from  both  parties.  Jefferson  was  Secretary 
of  State,  Hamilton  of  the  Treasury,  General  Henry 
Knox  of  War,  and  Edmund  Randolph,  Attorney- 
General.  These  composed'  the  Cabinet.  The  Su- 
preme Court  were  to  be  appointed.  He  put  John 
Jay  at  its  head.  He  would  not  be  President  of  a 
party,  but  sought  to  reconcile  differences,  and  to 
fuse  all  parties  into  one.  The  attempt  could  not 
succeed.  There  \vere  quarrels  in  his  own  Cabinet, 
especially  between  Jefferson,  who  was  an  ideal  Dem- 
ocrat, with  great  confidence  in  the  mass  of  the  Peo- 
ple, and  Hamilton,  who  inclined  towards  Monarchy, 
and  had  but  small  confidence  in  the  People.  In  the 


112  WASHINGTON. 

eight  years  of  Washington's  two  Presidencies  the 
country  was  full  of  strife  and  contentions  be- 
tween these  parties.  No  President  has  since  had 
such  difficulties  to  contend  with  —  all  was  to  be 
made  anew ;  the  Departments  of  Government  to  be 
constructed,  treaties  to  be  negotiated  with  Foreign 
Powers,  the  revenue  to  be  settled,  the  public  debt 
to  be  paid,  the  Continental  paper  money  to  be  pro- 
vided for,  or  the  question  disposed  of,  the  limits  of 
the  constitutional  power  of  the  General  Government 
to  be  fixed,  the  .forms  of  procedure  in  the  Federal 
courts  to  be  settled.  The  Union  itself  was  so  new, 
the  elements  were  so  diverse,  the  interests  of  North 
and  South  so  hostile,  it  was  to  be  feared  the  whole 
would  soon  fall  to  pieces.  But  quickly  the  Govern- 
ment was  organized,  an  admirable  plan  of  Adminis- 
tration was  devised,  and  the  eight  years  brought  in- 
creased stability  to  the  American  Institutions,  greater 
confidence  in  them,  greater  welfare  to  the  whole  peo- 
ple, and  additional  renown  to  Washington. 

I  will  not  here  recapitulate  the  chief  acts  of  his 
Administration.  They  are  to  be  found  in  historical 
and  biographical  works.  His  leading  principle  was 
simply  to  be  just  to  all,  and  demand  justice  from  all. 
This  was  especially  difficult  in  a  time  of  such  trou- 
ble ;  for  while  the  constructive  work  of  American 
Democracy  was  going  on  here,  in  Europe  the  great 
destructive  forces  of  Humanity  made  the  earth  to 


WASHINGTON.  113 

quake,  and  to  swallow  down  the  most  ancient  Mon- 
archy in  the  Christian  world.  Both  countries  felt 
the  shock  of  the  French  Revolution.  The  Federal- 
ists generally  took  sides  against  France,  and  with 
England,  who  feared  the  revolutionary  contagion. 
The  Democrats  favored  the  French,  and  were  hos- 
tile to  England,  as  being  willing  to  arrest  the  prog- 
res?  of  mankind.  Both  parties  were  a  little  crazy. 

VII.  On  the  3d  of  March,  1797,  Washington  with- 
drew from  public  life,  and  in  a  few  days  again  sat 
down  at  Mount  Vernon,  devoted  himself  to  agricul- 
ture, and  hoped  to  enjoy  the  pleasing  leisure  of  a 
country  life.  But  his  Farewell  Address  could  not 
save  him  from  public  duties.  He  was  to  die  with 
his  harness  on.  Fear  of  war  with  France  called  him 
again  to  the  head  of  the  American  Army,  which  must 
be  reconstructed  in  the  midst  of  new  and  endless  dif- 
ficulties. But  soon  a  peaceful  trumpet  called  him  to 
another  field.  On  the  14th  December,  1799,  Wash- 
ington ceased  to  be  mortal ;  and  he  who  had  been 
"first  in  war,  and  first  in  peace,"  became  also  "first 
in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,"  where  he  still 
lives. 

It  is  not  difficult,  to  understand  a  character  which 
is  so  plain,  the  features  so  distinct  and  strongly 
marked. 

8 


114  WASHINGTON. 

I.  Look  at  his  Intellect. 

He  had  not  a  great  Reason  —  that  philosophic  prin- 
ciple which  seeks  the  universal  Law  and  the  scientific 
truths,  resting  in  them  as  ends.  He  was  not  a  spec- 
ulative, but  a  practical  man ;  not  at  all  devoted  to 
Ideas.  He  had  no  tendency  to  Science.  He  did 
not  look  after  causes,  ultimate  reasons,  general 
laws ;  only  after  facts.  He  was  concerned  with 
measures,  not  with  principles.  He  seldom,  if  ever, 
made  a  philosophic  remark  on  matter  or  on  man. 
His  diary  is  full  of  facts.  It  ha's  no  ideas,  no  hints 
or  studies  of  a  thoughtful  character.  He  had  little 
curiosity  to  learn  the  great  generalizations  of  nature. 
It  does  not  appear  that  he  ever  read  a  single  philo- 
sophic book.  His  letters  contain  no  ideas,  and  refer 
to  no  great  principles. 

II.  He  had  not  much  Imagination  —  that  poetic 
power  which  rests  in  Ideal  Beauty  as  its  end.    There 
was  little  of  the  ideal  element  in  him.     He  takes  no 
notice  of  the  handsome  things  in  Nature,  Art,  or  Lit- 
erature.    I  remember  but  one  reference  to  anything 
of  the  kind.     That  is  to  be  found  in  the  "  Lowland 
Beauty,"  who    so   charmed   him   in    boyhood.      Pie 
looked  at  Use,  not  at  Beauty.     Handsome  dress  he 
prized  for  the  dignity  and  consequence  it  gave  him. 
This  unideal  character  marks   his  style  of  writing, 
which  is  commonly  formal,   stiff,  and  rather  prim, 


WASHINGTON.  115 

without  ornament,  or  any  of  the  little  wayside  beau- 
ties which  spring  up  between  the  stones  even  of  a 
military  road.  He  seems  to  have  had  as  little  fond- 
ness for  Literature  as  for  Science.  The  books  he  read 
were  practical  works,  which  contained  only  informa- 
tion, and  were  quite  destitute  of  the  beauty,  the  in- 
spiration, and  the  charm  of  letters.  In  the  great 
mass  of  documents  which  bear  his  name  it  is  not 
always  easy  to  see  what  is  his.  Some  of  his  greatest 
State  papers  were  the  work  of  other  hands.  The 
Farewell  Address  must  be  adjudged  to  Madison,  who 
made  the  original  draft  in  1792,  and  to  Hamilton,  who 
wrought  it  over  in  1797.  Washington  wrote  it  out 
anew  with  his  own  hand,  making  some  alterations. 
It  required  four  months  to  get  it  ready,  so  important 
did  Washington  deem  the  occasion.  The  greater  part 
of  the  letters  which  fill  eighty  manuscript  volumes 
are  written  by  his  secretaries,  who  must  think  for 
him  as  well  as  write.  Still,  there  are  enough  which 
came  unaltered  from  his  pen  to  show  us  what  power 
of  writing  he  possessed. 

It  is  refreshing  to  find  that  he  sometimes  departed 
from  the  solemn,  dull,  conventional  language  of  State 
papers,  and  calls  the  British  soldiers  "  Red  Coats," 
and  General  Putnam  "  Old  Put ;  "  talks  of  "  kicking 
up  some  dust,"  "  making  a  rumpus,"  of  nominating 
"  men  not  fit  to  be  shoe-blacks ; "  speaks  of  "  the 
rascally  Puritanism  of  New  England,"  and  "the  ras- 


116  WASHINGTON. 

cally  Tories  ;  "  "  a  scoundrel  from  Marblehead — a  man 
of  Property."  But  in  general  his  style  is  plain  and 
business-like,  without  fancy  or  figure  of  speech,  and 
without  wrath.  His  writings  are  not  grass  which 
grows  in  the  fields ;  they  are  hay  which  is  pitched 
down  from  the  mow  in  a  barn. 

III.  Washington  had  a  great  Understanding.  He 
had  that  admirable  balance  of  faculties  which  we  call 
good  judgment ;  the  power  of  seeing  the  most  expe- 
dient way  of  doing  what  must  be  done,  —  a  quality 
more  rare,  perhaps,  than  what  men  call  Genius.  Yet 
his  understanding  was  not  of  a  wide  range,  but  was 
limited  to  a  few  particulars,  all  pertaining  to  practi- 
cal affairs. 

Thus  gifted,  Washington  was  not  an  Originator.  I 
think  he  discovered  nothing,  invented  nothing  —  in 
war,  in  politics,  or  in  agriculture.  The  "  new  plough 
of  my  own  invention "  came  to  nothing.  He  was  a 
soldier  nearly  sixteen  years.  I  do  not  find  that  he 
discovered  anything  new  in  military  affairs.  He  sat 
in  the  Virginia  Assembly  of  Burgesses  ;  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  Continental  Congress,  and  was  a  member 
of  the  Federal  Convention  at  the  time  when  those 
bodies  were  busy  with  the  most  important  matters ; 
but  I  do  not  learn  that  he  brought  forward  any  new 
idea,  any  original  view  of  affairs,  or  ever  proposed 
any  new  measure.  He  was  eight  years  President, 


WASHINGTON.  117 

and  left  behind  him  no  marks  of  originality,  of  inven- 
tive talent,  or  of  power  of  deep  insight  into  causes, 
into  their  modes  of  operation,  or  even  into  their 
remote  effects.  Here  he  stood  on  the  common  level 
of  mankind,  and  saw  no  deeper  or  farther  than  ordi- 
nary men.  But  he  was  a  good  Organizer.  Naturally 
systematic,  industrious,  and  regular  by  early  habit, 
he  had  the  art  to  make  things  take  an  orderly  shape, 
and  to  serve  the  purpose  he  had  in  view.  Thus 
his  large  farm  at  Mount  Vernon  was  managed  with 
masterly  skill ;  the  routine  of  crops  was  adjusted  as 
well  as  was  then  known  to  the  art  of  Agriculture.  In 
the  French  and  Indian  War  he  took  the  raw  human 
material,  arrayed  it  into  companies  and  regiments,  and 
made  a  serviceable  little  army.  In  the  War  of  the 
Revolution  he  did  the  same  thing  on  a  larger  scale, 
and  with,  perhaps,  yet  greater  difficulties  in  his  way. 
He  took  the  rude,  undisciplined  mass  of  New  England 
valor  at  Cambridge,  in  1775,  and  in  a  few  months 
made  it  quite  an  effective  army,  able  to  strike  a  pow- 
erful blow.  He  was  called  on  to  do  the  same  many 
times  in  that  war,  and  almost  always  accomplished 
such  tasks  with  consummate  skill.  He  laid  out  his 
plans  of  a  battle  or  campaign  with  great  good  sense. 
But  I  think  he  had  no  originality  in  his  plans,  or  in 
his  mode  either  of  arranging  his  grounds  or  of  mar- 
shalling his  soldiers.  He  followed  the  old  schemes, 
and  always  took  abundant  counsel.  As  President, 


118  WASHINGTON. 

he  had  much  of  this  work  of  organization  to  attend 
to.  With  the  help  of  the  able  heads  of  Adams,  Jef- 
ferson, Hamilton,  Jay,  and  others,  it  was  successfully 
done. 

His  great  talent  was  that  of  Administration.  He 
had  that  rare  combination  of  judgment,  courage,  and 
capacity  for  action  which  enabled  him  to  manage  all 
things  well.  He  was  fond  of  detail  —  no  little  thing 
was  too  minute  for  his  delicate  eye.  He  administered 
his  farm  with  severe  and  nice  economy ;  yet  the 
system  of  Slavery  did  not  allow  it  to  be  very  produc- 
tive. His  day-books  show  what  all  the  men  are 
doing.  At  home  he  remembered  the  value  of  the 
master's  eye. 

While  absent  from  Virginia  eight  years  in  the 
army,  he  had  accounts  continually  remitted  from  his 
chief  overseer,  telling  him  of  all  the  minute  details  of 
the  ploughing,  planting,  reaping,  threshing,  raising 
tobacco,  and  selling  it ;  the  birth  of  cattle  and  slaves, 
the  health  of  his  animal  and  of  his  Human  stock. 
Always,  once  a  week,  Washington  wrote  to  his  over- 
seer, even  in  the  most  troublous  times.  I  think  that 
he  never  failed  of  this  in  all  the  period  of  storms, 
from  January,  1776,  to  December,  1784.  With  the 
same  skill  he  administered  the  affairs  of  the  little  mis- 
erable Virginia  army  in  the  French  and  Indian  War, 
and  the  greater  cares  of  the  Revolutionary  Army, 


WASHINGTON.  119 

The  nearer  we  come  to  the  facts,  the  more  are  we 
astonished  at  the  great  difficulties  he  surmounted  — 
want  of  powder,  want  of  guns,  want  of  clothes,  want 
of  tents,  want  of  shoes,  and,  above  all,  want  of  money, 
which  is  want  of  everything.  We  are  amazed  at  the 
jealousy  of  Congress,  the  bickerings  and  petty  rival- 
ries of  little  and  mean  men  ambitious  of  his  military 
renown,  at  the  coldness  of  the  people  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, of  Maryland,  of  the  Carolinas,  of  Georgia, 
and  their  indifference,  even,  to  their  own  success. 
But  we  are  still  more  amazed  at  the  high  ability  with 
which  he  administered  his  humble  supplies  of  means 
and  of  men,  and  at  the  grand  result  he  brought  to 
pass.  He  was  not  a  swift  thinker ;  he  never  fought 
a  brilliant  campaign,  or  more  than  a  single  brilliant 
battle — that  at  Trenton ;  but  I  doubt  that  Alexander, 
that  Caesar,  that  Napoleon,  or  even  Hannibal,  had 
more  administrative  military  skill,  save  in  this,  that 
he  had  not  the  power  to  make  rapid  combinations  on 
the  field  of  battle ;  he  must  think  it  all  out  before- 
hand, draw  on  paper  the  plan  of  movement,  and  fix 
the  place  of  the  troops.  Hence  he  was  skilful  in 
attack,  but  not  equally  able  when  the  assault  was 
made  upon  him.  He  had  slow,  far-sighted  judgment. 
In  much  time  he  prepared  and  wrought  for  much 
time.  He  had  a  real  military  talent,  not  a  Genius 
for  War. 

As  President,  he  administered  the  political  affairs 


120  WASHINGTON. 

of  the  Nation  with  the  same  skill,  the  same  patience 
in  details,  the  same  comprehensive  diligence.  A 
man  of  judgment,  not  of  genius,  in  all  important 
military  matters  he  required  each  colonel  and  officer 
to  furnish  a  written  report  of  what  ought  to  be  done, 
compared  them  all  carefully,  and  made  up  his  mind 
after  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  facts,  and  a  care- 
ful examination  of  the  opinions  of  able  men. 

I  do  not  find  that  Washington  had  any  new  ideas 
about  Government,  or  about  political  affairs.  He 
opposed  the  British  Despotism  in  1768  ;  but  all  New 
England  had  gone  that  way  before  him,  and  he  fol- 
lowed after  in  the  train  of  the  ablest  and  some  of  the 
richest  men  in  Virginia.  He  favored  the  union  of 
the  Colonies ;  but  Franklin  had  suggested  that  in 
1754,  and  Massachusetts,  in  1770,  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  confer  with  all  the  Colonial  Legislatures. 
He  attended  the  Continental  Congress  in  1774 ;  but 
Franklin,  then  in  England,  had  really  originated  it. 
He  sought  for  Independence ;  but,  long  before  him, 
the  great  souls  of  Samuel  Adams  and  Joseph  Haw- 
ley  had  shown  that  it  was  indispensable,  and  the  fiery 
tongue  of  Patrick  Henry  had  proclaimed  it.  I  think 
the  Constitution  does  not  owe- a  thought  to  him.  The 
original  plan  of  the  details  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment does  not  seem  to  have  come  from  him,  but  from 
Jefferson,  Hamilton,  Jay.  Let  us  be  reverent  of 
great  names,  also  just.  Washington's  superiority  to 


WASHINGTON.  121 

others  was  not  intellectual.  He  was  continually  sur- 
rounded by  abler  minds  in  the  Virginia  Legislature 
and  in  the  Continental  Congress,  in  the  Army  and  in 
the  Cabinet.  Compare  him  with  Franklin,  Samuel 
Adams,  John  Adams,  Jefferson,  Hamilton,  Jay, 
Madison,  with  Greene,  Pickering,  and  many  more. 
But  he  pretended  to  no  intellectual  greatness,  and 
was  one  of  the  most  modest  of  men.  This  appeared 
in  all  his  life,  from  the  day  the  Virginia  Assembly 
presented  the  blushing  colonel  with  their  thanks, 
until  he  gave  the  people  of  the  United  States  of 
America  his  Farewell  Address. 

II.  His  excellence  was  moral.  He  had  that  con- 
stitution and  quality  of  moral  power  which  is  to  vir- 
tue what  good  sense  is  to  intellect.  One  of  the  most 
conscientious  of  men,  he  was  not  morally  romantic, 
enthusiastic,  or  transcendental.  There  was  no  more 
moonshine  in  his  moral  than  in  his  intellectual  char- 
acter. His  virtue  was  not 

"  too  bright  and  good 
For  human  nature's  daily  food." 

1.  His  natural  temperament  did  not  much  incline 
him  to  the  vices  of  passion  in  youth,  for  he  was  of 
that  stern  and  austere  make  which  leans  to  strictness 
rather  than  to  self-indulgence.  He  wrote  in  his 
copy-book,  M  Labor  to  keep  alive  in  your  breast  that 


122  WASHINGTON. 

little  spark  of  celestial  fire  called  conscience."  Ill 
few  hearts  did  it  ever  burn  with  a  steadier  and  more 
constant  flame.  Yet  there  was  no  unusual  rigidity 
in  his  rules  of  life.  He  was  a  man,  and  not  an 
ascetic. 

He  had  a  nice  love  of  order,  and  a  quick  instinct 
for  decorum.  This  appears  in  the  neatness  of  his 
writing-books  at  the  age  of  thirteen ;  in  the  accuracy 
of  his  diagrams  made  when  he  was  a  surveyor,  farm- 
er, or  soldier ;  in  the  clear  round  hand  and  lucid  style 
of  his  writings ;  in  the  regularity  of  his  habits  ;  the 
stately  ^deportment  which  marked  him,  whether  in 
the  forest,  the  camp,  or  in  the  Senate  of  the  Nation. 
Yet  if  you  look  carefully,  you  find  he  was  not  so  fas- 
tidious as  to  order  in  thoughts  as  in  things.  He  was 
fond  of  form  and  parade,  and  when  President,  adopt- 
ed the  stately  customs  of  Monarchic  Courts,  not  un- 
justly complained  of  at  the  time  as  savoring  of 
aristocracy,  and  looking  towards  kingly  institutions. 
It  may  be  that  Hamilton,  Adams,  and  others  had 
more  to  do  with  this  foolish  parade  than  Washing- 
ton himself.  Yet  he  loved  splendor,  and  rode  in  a 
coach  with  four  and  sometimes  six  horses.  Other 
Virginia  gentlemen  did  the  same.  Men  could  not 
forget  the  old  nonsense  all  at  once.  "Nihil  saltatim, 
omne  gradatim,"  is  Nature's  rule  of  conduct.  He 
was  accurate  in  his  accounts,  omitting  no  little  de- 
tail, punctual  in  regard  to  time,  orderly  in  all  things. 


WASHINGTON.  123 

2.  He  had  great  power  of  wrath,  inheriting  the 
high,  hasty  temper  of  his  mother.  In  youth  he  was 
"  sudden  and  quick  in  quarrel."  In  middle  life  his 
passion  was  tremendous,  sometimes  getting  vent  in 
words,  sometimes  in  blows.  He  never  overcame  this 
excess  of  heat,  this  congenital  distemper  of  the  blood. 
Jefferson  tells  of  a  great  "  occasion  when  the  Presi- 
dent was  much  inflamed,  got  into  one  of  those  pas- 
sions when  he  cannot  command  himself,"  "called 
Freneau  a  rascal,"  and  did  not  miscall  him,  and  said 
"that,  by  God,  he  would  rather  be  in  his  grave  than 
in  his  present  situation."  *  In  the  latter  years  of 
the  Revolution  his  temper  greatly  offended  the  offi- 
cers. 

In  1775,  at  Cambridge,  the  army  was  destitute  of 
powder.  Washington  sent  Colonel  Glover  to  Mar- 
blehead  for  a  supply  of  that  article,  which  was  said 
to  be  there.  At  night  the  colonel  returned,  found 
Washington  in  front  of  his  Head  Quarters,  pacing  up 
and  down.  Glover  saluted.  The  General,  without 
returning  his  salute,  asked,  roughly,  "  Have  you  got 
the  powder?"  "No,  sir."  Washington  swore  out 
the  great  terrible  Saxon  oath,  with  all  its  three  speci- 
fications. "  Why  did  you  come  back,  sir,  without  it  ?  " 
"  Sir,  there  is  not  a  kernel  of  powder  in  Marble- 
head."  Washington  walked  up  and  down  a  minute 
or  two,  in  great  agitation,  and  then  said,  "Colonel 

*  See  Jefferson's  Works,  ix.  p.  164. 


124  WASHINGTON. 

Glover,  here  is  my  hand,  if  you  will  take  it,  and  for- 
give me.  The  greatness  of  our  danger  made  me 
forget  what  is  due  to  you  and  to  myself." 

Tobias  Lear,  his  intimate  friend,  and  private  sec- 
retary, says,  that  in  the  winter  of  1791,  an  officer 
brought  a  letter  telling  of  General  St.  Glair's  disas- 
trous defeat  by  the  Indians.  It  must  be  delivered  to 
the  President  himself.  He  left  his  family  and  guests 
at  table,  glanced  over  the  contents,  and  when  he  re- 
joined them,  seemed  calm  as  usual.  But  afterwards, 
when  he  and  Lear  were  alone,  he  walked  the  room 
silent  a  while,  and  then  broke  out  in  great  agitation. 
"It  is  all  over.  St.  Clair  is  defeated,  routed;  the 
officers  nearly  all  killed,  the  men  by  wholesale ;  the 
disaster  complete,  too  shocking  to  think  off,  and  a 
surprise  into  the  bargain  !  "  He  walked  about,  much 
agitated,  and  his  wrath  became  terrible.  "Yes,"  he 
burst  forth,  "  here,  on  this  very  spot,  I  took  leave  of 
him.  I  wished  him  success  and  honor.  'You  have 
your  instructions,'  I  said,  '  from  the  Secretary  of  War. 
I  had  myself  a  strict  eye  to  them,  and  will  add  but 
one  word,  Beware  of  a  surprise!  I  repeat  it,  BE- 
WARE OF  A  SURPRISE  !  You  know  how  the  Indians 
fight  1 '  He  went  off  with  this,  as  my  last  solemn 
warning,  thrown  into  his  ears ;  and  yet,  to  suffer 
that  army  to  be  cut  to  pieces,  hacked,  butchered, 
tomahawked,  by  a  surprise,  the  very  thing  I  guarded 
him  against!  O  God!  O  God!  he  is  worse  than 


WASHINGTON .  125 

a  murderer  !  How  can  he  answer  for  it  to  his  coun- 
try ?  The  blood  of  the  slain  is  upon  him,  the  curse 
of  widows  and  orphans,  the  curse  of  Heaven  !  "  His 
emotions  were  awful.  After  which  he  cooled  a 
little,  and  sat  down,  and  said,  w  This  must  not  go 
beyond  this  room.  General  St.  Clair  shall  have 
justice.  I  looked  through  the  despatches,  saw  the 
whole  disaster,  but  not  all  the  particulars.  I  will 
receive  him  without  displeasure ;  I  will  hear  him 
without  prejudice.  He  shall  have  full  justice."  * 

3.  By  nature  and  education  he  had  a  strong 
love  of  approbation,  and  seemed  greedy  of  ap- 
plause. This  appears  in  his  somewhat  worldly 
w  Rules  of  Conduct,"  which  he  copied  out  in  his 
youth ;  in  his  fondness  for  dress,  which  did  not 
come  from  a  nice  artistic  sense  of  beauty,  but  rather 
from  a  desire  to  win  the  respect  and  esteem  of  other 
men ;  and  from  that  sensitiveness  to  public  opinion 
which  appears  at  all  periods  of  his  life,  especially 
at  the  period  when  he  was  criticised  with  such 
cruel  injustice  and  wanton  insult.  In  early  life  he 
loved  honor,  and  was  ambitious  for  distinction,  and 
so  obtained  a  commission  in  the  forces  of  Vir- 
ginia. 

I  think  he  never  had  that  mean  passion  of  love  of 

*  See  MSS.  in  Sparks's  Washington,  x.  p.  222;  Hush's  Wash- 
ington in  Domestic  Life,  pp.  67-69. 


126  WASHINGTON. 

approbation  which  is  called  vanity,  and  is  to  honor 
what  the  foam  is  to  the  sea.  The  scum  it  genders 
drives  before  the  wind,  and  unsubstantial  melts 
away.  Yet  in  all  his  manly  public  life  as  Legislator, 
General,  President,  I  cannot  find  an  instance  in 
which  he  courted  popularity.  Office  always  sought 
him ;  he  never  sought  it.  In  no  instance  did  he 
stoop  his  majestic  head  to  avoid  calumny,  or  to  pick 
up  the  applause  which  might  be  tainted  with  the 
least  uncleanness.  Admirers  there  were  about  him  ; 
there  was  no  place  for  a  flatterer.*  In  all  his  public 
addresses,  in  all  his  official  or  private  letters,  and  in 
the  reports  of  his  familiar  talk,  there  is  no  evidence 
that  he  referred  to  himself,  or  alluded  to  any  great 
or  good  deed  he  had  ever  done  I  In  the  eleven 
thick  volumes  of  his  works,  and  in  the  many  other 
manuscripts  which  are  still  preserved,  I  find  not  a 
line  which  was  written  with  the  peacock  feather  of 
vanity,  not  a  word  which  asks  applause.  After 
1790,  the  eyes  of  the  nation — yes,  of  the  world  — 
were  on  the  sublimest  man  in  it.  His  eye  was  on 
the  Nation,  and  on  the  Eternal  Right,  not  on  George 
Washington,  or  on  his  great  deeds.  Popularity  is  a 
boy's  bonfire  in  the  street.  Merit  is  the  heavenly 
light  of  sun,  and  moon,  and  star. 

*  In  Villemain's,  Vie  de  Chateaubriand  (Paris,  1858),  pp.  51,  52, 
see  the  account  of  the  youthful  enthusiast's  interview  with  Wash- 
ington in  1791. 


WASHINGTON.  127 

4.  Washington  was  a  courageous  man.  He  had 
that  vigorous  animal  bravery,  which  laughs  at  dan- 
ger and  despises  fear.  But  this  was  tempered  with 
caution.  It  was  discreet  valor,  which  did  not  waste 
its  strength.  In  his  report  of  the  little  battle  with 
Jumonville,  in  1754,  when  he  was  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  it  is  related  that  he  said,  "I  heard  the  bullets 
whistle,  and,  believe  me,  there  is  something  charming 
in  the  sound  ! "  King  George  the  Second  added, 
"  He  would  not  say  so  if  he  had  been  used  to  hearing 
many."  When  Washington  was  once  questioned 
about  the  story,  he  answered,  "If  I  ever  said  so,  it 
was  when  I  was  young."  * 

But  he  had  that  high  moral  courage,  which  dares 
affront  perils  greater  than  the  whistling  of  bul- 
lets. He  chose  the  right  cause,  though  it  were  un- 
popular, and  held  to  it,  fearful  of  nothing  but  to  do 
wrong.  When  defeated,  he  still  bore  up  amid  the 
greatest  difficulties.  The  Americans  were  beaten  in 
every  attack  made  upon  them,  from  the  Battle  of  Bun- 
ker Hill,  June  17,  1775,  till  the  battle  of  Fort  Mif- 
flin,  October  22,  1777  :  they  were  victorious  only 
when  they  made  the  charge.  Yet  Washington  did 
not  despair.  At  Cambridge  he  had  no  powder,  yet 
his  courage  and  perseverance  held  out.  He  lost 
Long  Island,  New  York  Island,  Fort  Washington, 
and  some  three  thousand  men.  This  was  the  great- 

*  Sparks,  ii.  40. 


128  WASHINGTON. 

est  disaster  of  the  whole  war.  He  fled  through  the 
Jerseys,  his  army  dwindling  and  shrinking  till  he 
had  hardly  seven  thousand  men,  ill  armed,  unpaid, 
ill  clad,  ill  fed.  Yet  his  heart  did  not  fail  him.  He 
wrote  his  brother,  "  If  every  nerve  is  not  strained  to 
recruit  the  new  army  with  all  possible  expedition,  I 
think  the  game  is  pretty  nearly  up."  On  the  20th 
December,  1776,  he  tells  the  President  of  Congress, 
Mr.  Hancock,  "  Ten  days  more  will  put  an  end  to  the 
existence  of  our  army  I "  The  recruits  came  in 
slowly,  and  the  enemy,  in  full  force,  lay  at  New 
York,  within  two  days'  inarch  of  him.  But  Washing- 
ton's courage  did  not  fail  him,  nor  his  hope.  Many 
of  the  early  officers  of  the  Revolution  left  the  army 
in  disgust.  The  Nation  did  not  pay  their  expenses, 
and  made  no  promise  of  future  indemnity.  This 
discouraged  the  men,  and  they  could  not  enlist  again 
after  their  favorite  commanders  were  gone.  But 
Washington  still  held  on,  and  sought  to  cheer  the 
fainting  souls  of  both  officers  and  men.  In  1777,  when 
the  British  held  Philadelphia,  and  Washington  went 
into  winter  quarters  at  Valley  Forge,  only  a  day's 
march  off,  at  a  time  of  the  greatest  peril,  the  coward- 
ly State  of  Pennsylvania  had  but  twelve  hundred 
militia  in  the  field  to  defend  their  own  firesides. 
Tories  abounded,  full  of  insolence.  Congress  was 
thinly  attended.  There  were  whole  weeks  with  no 
quorum  of  States.  Many  of  the  members  were  hos- 


WASHINGTON.  129 

tile  to  him.  But  his  great  heart  did  not  give  up. 
There  was  a  cabal  in  the  army  against  him.  Con- 
way,  Gates,  Mifflin,  and  perhaps  Pickering,  coveted 
his  place,  and  attempted  his  ruin.  Reed,  his  confi- 
dential secretary,  was  party  to  the  intrigue.  Mem- 
bers of  Congress  distrusted  him,  and  openly  or  se- 
cretly opposed  him,  and  wished  to  remove  him  from 
office.  Had  he  not  served  them  for  nothing,  they 
would  have  done  so ;  and  yet  this  great  soul  bore 
up  against  it  all,  and  never  quailed  before  so  mani- 
fold a  storm  of  evil. 

5.  Washington  had  a  will  of  mighty  strength, — 
firm,  resolute,  tenacious.  When  his  mind  was  made 
up,  nothing  turned  him  aside.  But  he  had  such  ad- 
mirable self-command  that  he  was  not  at  all  invasive 
of  the  opinions  of  others.  He  respected  the  person- 
ality of  men,  and  did  not  impose  his  will  upon  them  ; 
neither  did  he  allow  others  to  intrude  upon  him ;  but 
he  kept  himself  apart,  austerely  as  the  northern  star. 
He  held  the  military  power  in  exact  subordination  to 
the  Civil.  Where  he  was  present,  the  laws  spoke 
with  clear  voice.  In  the  midst  of  arms,  he  did  not 
abuse  power. 

Yet  he  sometimes  proposed  harsh  measures.     He 

wished,  in  1776,  to  arrest  and  confine  all  who  refused 

to  receive  the  Continental  paper-money  at  par,  and  to 

report  them   for   trial  to  the  States  to  which  they 

9 


130  WASHINGTON. 

belonged.  He  wanted  speculators  and  forestallers 
brought  to  condign  punishment.  "I  would  to  God," 
said  he,  in  1779,  "that  some  one  of  the  more  atro- 
cious in  each  State  were  hung  in  chains  upon  a 
gallows  five  times  as  high  as  the  one  prepared  for 
Haman."  * 

VI.  The  highest  moral  quality  is  Integrity,  faith- 
fulness to  conviction  and  to  all  delegated  trust.  This 
was  his  crowning  virtue.  He  had  it  in  the  heroic 
degree.  It  appears  in  all  his  life,  —  from  the  boy  of 
thirteen,  diligently  copying  his  tasks,  to  the  famous 
man,  well  nigh  threescore  and  ten.  Here  I  know 
not  who  was  his  superior.  I  cannot  put  my  finger 
on  a  deliberate  act  of  his  public  or  private  life  which 
would  detract  from  this  high  praise.  He  had  no  sub- 
tilty  of  character,  no  cunning ;  he  hated  duplicity, 
lying,  and  liars.  He  withdrew  his  confidence  from 
Jefierson  when  he  found  him  fraudulent ;  from  his 
secretary,  Reed,  when  he  was  found  false  in  a  small 
particular.  He  would  not  appoint  Aaron  Burr  to 
any  office,  because  he  knew  him  to  be  an  intriguer. 
He  could  be  silent,  he  could  not  feign ;  simula- 
tion and  dissimulation  formed  no  part  of  his  char- 
acter. Reserved,  cautious,  thinking  before  he  spoke, 
I  can  find  no  act  of  his  civil  life  which  implies  the 
least  insincerity,  the  least  want  of  ingenuousness  in 
the  man. 

*  HUdreth,  iii.  272. 


WASHINGTON.  131 

In  war,  he  used  fraud  to  spare  force,  and  won  the 
greatest  triumph  of  the  Revolution  by  a  military  lie. 
In  1781,  the  British  General  Clinton  had  an  army  at 
New  York,  Cornwallis  another  in  Virginia.  Wash- 
ington lay  along  on  the  North  River  and  the  Jerseys. 
He  meant  to  strike  Cornwallis.  To  render  the  blow 
sure  and  effective,  he  must  make  it  appear  that  he 
intended  to  attack  New  York.  He  did  so  more  than 
a  year  beforehand.  He  deceived  the  highest  civil 
officers,  the  highest  military  officers,  and  all  the  Mid- 
dle and  Eastern  States.  To  mislead  the  enemy,  he 
collected  forage  and  boats  in  the  neighborhood  of 
New  York,  built  ovens,  as  if  he  intended  to  remain- 
there  and  attack  the  city.  He  wrote  letters  to  the 
American  and  French  officers,  ordering  them  to  that 
place,  for  he  should  besiege  the  town,  and  sent  them 
so  that  they  were  sure  to  fall  into  the  enemy's  hands. 
He  deceived  friend  and  foe.  Then  at  the  right 
moment  he  broke  up  his  camp,  marched  hastily  to 
Virginia,  and  dealt  the  fatal  blow  at  Cornwallis  at 
Yorktown.* 

All  this  deception  was  as  necessary  to  his  military 
plan  as  powder  to  his  cannon.  It  implies  no  deceit- 
fulness  of  character  in  the  deceiver. 

He  had  no  meanness,  no  little  resentments.  If  he 
wronged  a  man  in  his  hasty  temper,  he  sought  to 
repair  the  wrong.  There  was  nothing  selfish  in  his 

*  Sparks,  viii.  141 ;  ix.  402. 


132  WASHINGTON. 

ambition.  He  rises  above  the  most  of  men  about 
him,  —  in  the  camp,  in  the  Congress,  or  the  Cabinet, — 
as  a  tall  pine  above  the  brushwood  at  its  feet.  He 
did  nothing  little.  After  the  fighting  was  over,  the 
army  was  not  paid,  and  there  was  no  certainty  of 
payment.  The  Nation  might  leave  it  to  the  States, 
and  the  States  might  refer  it  back  again  to  the  Na- 
tion. The  Government  was  weak  from  its  centre, 
and  not  efficient  or  respectable  from  the  character  of 
some  of  its  members.  A  portion  of  the  officers  of  the 
army,  aided  by  monarchial  men  in  all  the  States, 
wished  to  make  Washington  king.  He  needed  only 
to  say  "Yes, "and  the  deed  was  done.  He  pushed 
the  crown  away  with  conscientious  horror. 

How  admirable  was  all  his  conduct  after  the  cessa- 
tion of  hostilities !  He  was  faithful  to  the  army, 
faithful  to  the  Nation,  because  he  was  faithful  to  him- 
self. How  grand  was  his  address  to  the  army,  —  his 
letter  to  the  governors  of  the  States,  —  his  address  to 
Congress  when  he  returned  his  commission !  In  all 
the  history  of  mankind,  can  one  find  such  another 
example  of  forbearance  —  a  triumphant  soldier  refus- 
ing power,  and  preferring  to  go  back  and  till  his 
farm? 

"  His  means  were  pure  and  spotless  as  his  ends." 

III.  Washington  was  not  what  would  be  called  an 
affectionate  man,  or  one  rich  in  tender  emotions  of 
love.  Neither  his  nature  nor  his  breeding  tended 


WASHINGTON.  133 

that  way.  His  nature  seems  more  stern  than  kindly ; 
exact  and  moral,  but  not  loving.  He  was  a  soldier 
at  nineteen.  Great  cares  lay  on  him  in  his  early 
youth,  and  chilled  the  growth  of  the  gentler  emo- 
tions. His  marriage  was  not  very  propitious.  Mrs. 
Washington  appears  as  a  dressy,  fashionable  woman, 
without  much  head  or  heart.  The  one  letter  of  her 
husband,  and  his  occasional  references  to  her,  do  not 
give  us  a  very  pleasing  picture  of  the  woman.  It  is 
said  "  she  took  the  forward  end  of  the  matrimonial 
yoke."  To  command  and  obey  is  a  soldier's  duty. 
The  great  General  practised  the  first  in  the  army,  and 
the  last  at  Mount  Vernon.  He  had  no  children, 
and  so  lost  the  best  part  of  his  affectional  education. 
There  was  nothing  in  his  circumstances  to  supply  the 
original  defect  of  nature.  And  so,  upright  in  his 
principles  before  God,  and  downright  before  man, 
he  was  not  affectionate  and  loving.  Few  flowers  of 
that  tender  quality  spring  up  along  his  military,  offi- 
cial, or  domestic  paths.  He  was  a  just  guardian,  rath- 
er than  an  affectionate  uncle.  He  was  bashful  and 
silent  among  women.  Yet  he  was  a  benevolent  man, 
and  charitable.  He  was  attached  to  his  relations.  He 
seems  to  have  loved  Lafayette.  He  had  confidence  in 
Generals  Knox,  Lincoln,  Greene,  Governor  Jona- 

.  than  Trumbull,  Joseph  Reed,  Madison,  Tobias  Lear, 
perhaps   Harrison,   and   at   one   time  Jefferson.      I 

'    think  of  none  besides  ;  but  beyond  this  confidence  he 


134  WASHINGTON. 

had  little  affection  for  them.  Yet  he  had  no  ten- 
dency to  cruelty,  and  mitigated,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  horrors  of  war.  He  had  delicate  feelings  to- 
wards prisoners,  but  no  pity  for  the  "  rascally  To- 
ries," as  he  calls  them.  He  wore  his  wife's  miniature 
all  his  life.  It  lay  on  his  bosom  when  he  died.  But 
at  his  death  there  were  no  tender  partings  for  her. 
He  took  leave  of  no  one,  but  died  like  a  soldier. 

Nobody  was  familiar  with  Washington ;  scarcely 
any  one  intimate.  Men  felt  admiration,  reverence, 
awe,  devotion  for  this  collection  of  grand  qualities, 
but  not  love.  They  would  lay  down  their  lives  for 
him,  but  they  could  not  take  him  to  their  heart.  He 
would  not  suffer  it. 

IV.  In  Washington's  religious  character  there  ap- 
pears the  same  peculiarity  which  distinguished  his 
intellectual,  moral,  and  affectional  relations.  He  had 
much  of  the  principle,  little  of  the  sentiment  of  re- 
ligion. He  was  more  moral  than  pious.  In  earlier 
life  a  certain  respect  for  ecclesiastical  laws  made  him 
a  vestryman  of  two  Episcopal  Churches,  and  kept 
him  attentive  to  those  externals,  which,  with  minis- 
ters and  reporters  for  the  newspapers,  pass  for  the 
substance  of  religion.  It  does  not  appear  that  he 
took  a  deep  and  spiritual  delight  in  religious  emo- 
tions, still  less  in  poetry,  works  of  art,  or  in  the 
beauty  of  Nature.  His  disposition  did  not  incline 


WASHINGTON.  135 

that  way.  But  he  had  a  devout  reverence  for  the 
First  Cause  of  all  things,  and  a  sublime,  never- 
failing  trust  in  that  Providence  which  watches  over 
the  affairs  alike  of  nations  and  of  men.  He  had  a 
strong,  unalterable  determination  to  do  his  duty  to 
his  God,  with  an  habitual  dread  of  aught  unworthy 
of  that  Holy  Name.  I  do  not  think  he  always  for- 
gave his  enemies,  like  Dr.  Franklin  ;  but  he  took  no 
revenge  on  others,  and  never,  save  in  momentary 
wrath,  spoke  ill  words  of  men  who  hated  and  sought 
to  ruin  him. 

In  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  from  1778  till  death, 
he  partook  of  what  is  called  the  Lord's  Supper  but 
once.  Ministers  have  taken  their  revenge  for  the 
omission,  and  have  denied  or  doubted  his  religious 
character. 

It  is  not  easy  to  ascertain  in  detail  his  theological 
opinions,  for  on  that  matter  he  held  his  peace.  Min- 
isters often  sought  to  learn  his  creed.  It  was  in 
vain.  Once  only  he  spoke  of  "the  pure  and  benign 
light  of  Revelation,"  and  "  the  Divine  Author  of  our 
blessed  Religion."  Silence  is  a  figure  of  speech.  In 
his  latter  years  he  had  no  more  belief  in  the  popular 
theology  than  John  Adams  or  Benjamin  Franklin, 
though,  unlike  them,  he  was  not  a  speculative  man. 
He  was  entirely  free  from  all  cant,  bigotry,  and  in- 
tolerance. 

Ministers,  anxious  to  claim  so  noble  a  man  for  the 


136  WASHINGTON. 

Christian  Church,  find  proof  of  his  religious  practices 
in  the  fact  that  he  punished  swearing  in  the  army, 
had  prayers  in  the  camp  at  Fort  Necessity  in  1754, 
attended  meeting,  referred  to  Divine  Providence, 
spoke  with  praise  of  Christianity,  and  once,  during 
the  Revolution,  took  bread  and  wine  in  a  Presbyte- 
rian meeting-house.  I  find  his  religion  rather  in  the 
general  devoutness  of  the  man,  and  in  his  continual 
trust  in  God ;  in  the  manly  self-command  which  tri- 
umphed over  such  a  wild  tempest  of  wrath  as  he 
sometimes  held  chained  within  him,  and  which  kept 
within  bounds  that  natural  love  of  power,  of  all 
evil  tendencies  the  most  difficult,  perhaps,  to  over- 
come. I  find  it  in  that  he  sought  duty  always,  and 
never  glory.  I  find  it  in  the  heroic  integrity  of  the 
man,  which  so  illustrated  his  whole  life.  Above  all 
do  I  find  it  in  his  relation  to  the  Nation's  greatest 
crime.  He  was  born  a  slaveholder,  and  so  bred. 
Slaves  fell  to  him  by  his  marriage,  which  were  the 
entailed  property  of  his  wife,  and  could  not  be  got 
rid  off  till  her  death.  The  African  slave-trade  was 
then  thought  as  legitimate  and  honorable  a  trade 
as  dealing  in  cattle,  in  land,  in  wheat,  or  in  oil. 
Washington  disliked  slavery,  thought  it  wrong  and 
wicked.  In  June,  1774,  he  was  chairman  of  the 
committee  which  drafted  the  resolution  of  Fairfax 
County,  and  was  the  moderator  of  the  meeting 
which  passed  them.  "  No  slaves  ought  to  be  import- 


WASHINGTON.  137 

ed  into  any  of  the  British  colonies  on  this  Continent." 
They  express  the  "most  earnest  wishes  to  have  an 
entire  stop  put  forever  to  such  a  wicked,  cruel,  and 
unnatural  traffic"  In  1783,  he  writes  to  Lafayette, 
who  had  bought  an  estate  in  Cayenne,  with  a  view  to 
emancipate  the  slaves,  "  I  shall  be  happy  to  join  you 
in  so  laudable  a  work.  It  is  a  generous  and  noble 
proof  of  your  humanity.  Would  to  God  a  like 
spirit  might  diffuse  itself  into  the  heart  of  the  people 
of  this  country.  But  I  despair  of  seeing  it.  By  de- 
grees it  certainly  might,  and  assuredly  ought,  to  be 
effected,  and  that,  too,  by  legislative  authority." 

In  his  famous  farewell  to  the  army,  he  congratulat- 
ed the  soldiers  of  the  ^Revolution  on  their  helping  out 
this  stupendous  fabric  of  Freedom  and  Empire,  on 
protecting  the  rights  of  Human  Nature,  and  estab- 
lishing an  asylum  for  the  poor  and  oppressed  of  all 
nations  and  religions."  *  He  sought  to  promote  the 
emancipation  of  all  the  slaves  in  Virginia.  That 
could  not  be  done.  At  last,  by  his  will,  he  set 
free  all  his  own  bondmen.  Their  delivery  was  to 
take  place  at  the  death  of  his  wife.  He  wished  it 
before,  but  it  could  not  be  brought  to  pass.  He 
provided  for  the  feeble  and  the  old.  The  young 
ones  were  to  be  free  at  twenty-five,  and  be  taught  to 

*  In  a  letter  to  the  English  or  Scotch  gentleman  who  wished  to 
settle  in  Virginia,  he  thinks  he  may  object  to  slavery ;  "but  slavery 
will  not  last  long,"  says  he. 


138  WASHINGTON. 

read  and  write.  He  says,  "I  do  hereby  expressly 
forbid  the  sale,  or  transportation  out  of  the  said  Com- 
monwealth, of  any  slave  I  may  die  possessed  of,  un- 
der any  pretence  whatsoever.  I  do  moreover  most 
pointedly  and  most  solemnly  enjoin  it  upon  my  exec- 
utors to  see  that  this  clause  respecting  slaves,  and 
every  part  hereof,  be  religiously  fulfilled,  without 
evasion,  neglect,  or  delay."  Here  Washington  rose 
superior  to  his  age  ;  here  I  find  proof  of  the  religious 
character  of  the  man.  If  Christianity  be  more  than 
one  of  the  many  delusions  imposed  on  a  groaning 
world,  it  is  because  it  is  that  Religion  which  consists 
in  natural  piety,  the  love  of  God,  and  in  natural 
morality,  the  keeping  of  his  laws.  And  if  Morality 
and  Piety  be  Religion,  then  who  shall  dare  charge 
Washington  with  lack  of  Christianity?  Shall  Min- 
isters, who  fawn  upon  wickedness,  and  Legislators, 
who  enact  iniquity  into  Laws?  But  great  man  as 
he  was,  —  conscientious,  moral,  religious,  in  the  high 
sense  of  that  abused  word,  "religion,"  —  he  was  not 
without  his  errors  and  great  offences  in  the  matter 
of  slavery.  A  negro  fell  in  the  Boston  Massacre. 
One  of  the  seventy  at  Lexington,  "who  fired  the 
shot  heard  round  the  world,"  was  a  negro,  and  died 
for  liberty  on  the  19th  April,  1775.  There  were 
many  Africans  in  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill ;  the 
Rhode  Island  troops,  in  the  Revolution,  were  full  of 
black  men.  In  the  terrible  fight  in  defence  of  Red 


WASHINGTON.  139 

Bank,  on  the  Delaware,  in  1777,  a  negro  regiment 
from  New  England  stood  in  the  thickest  of  the  bat- 
tle. Washington  was  a  leading  member  of  the  Fed- 
eral Convention.  He  and  Franklin  were  the  great- 
est men  in  the  Nation.  Had  Washington,  the  great 
and  successful  General,  the  President  of  the  Conven- 
tion, with  the  Nation's  eyes  fixed  upon  him,  said  to 
that  body,  "Let  there  be  no  slaves  in  the  United 
States,"  there  had  been  none  to-day.  We  might 
have  lost  the  termagant  and  noisy  Tory  Sister  Caro- 
lina ;  we  should  have  gained  millions  of  Freemen. 
But  Washington  sat,  and  said  nothing.  I  doubt  not 
his  conscientiousness. 

When  he  was  chosen  President  in  1789,  numerous 
public  bodies  sent  him  their  congratulations ;  most 
of  the  States  adding  their  hearty  testimonials  of  per- 
sonal respect.  The  Legislature  of  Georgia  sent  the 
address  of  that  State,  and  complained  of  "the  facility 
of  our  black  people  crossing  the  Spanish  line,  from 
whence  we  have  never  been  able  to  recover  them." 
This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Florida  War.  This 
the  first  address  of  Georgia.  Washington  promises 
to  attend  to  that  matter,  and  in  1791  attempts  to  re- 
cover those  poor  exiles  of  Florida,  who  had  sought 
refuge  from  bondage  among  Christians,  by  fleeing  to 
the  Creek  Indians  in  Spanish  America.  Thus  Wash- 
ington appears  in  the- second  year  of  his  Presidency 
as  a  national  stealer  of  men,  no  doubt  sorely  against 


140  -WASHINGTON. 

his  will.*  He  seized  the  first  fugitive  slave  in  June 
7,  1793,  —  one  of  the  early  invasions  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government  upon  the  rights  of  the  States.  One 
of  the  favorite  slaves  of  his  wife  ran  away.  He  heard 
she  was  living  at  Portsmouth,  in  the  State  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  he  wrote  to  some  Government  officer 
there,  asking  if  she  could  be  arrested  and  brought 
back  without  riot  and  public  scandal.  The  answer 
was,  "  No !  The  arrest  of  a  fugitive  woman  as 
the  slave  of  General  Washington  would  not  be 
tolerated  in  New  Hampshire."  The  President  gave 
up  the  pursuit.  I  make  no  doubt  with  inward  de- 
light. 

You  will  say,  w  He  did  little  for  the  freedom  of  the 
slaves."  He  did  more  than  all  Presidents,  with  the 
exception  of  Jefferson  and  Madison.  Think  of  any 
President  for  forty  years  daring  to  call  slavery 
w  wicked,"  w  unnatural,"  to  commend  emancipation, 
or  liberate  his  slaves  at  his  death.  Some  ministers 
would  say,  "He  hath  denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse 
than  an  infidel ! "  Judge  men  by  their  own  acts,  and 
by  their  own  light,  not  by  yours  or  mine.  Before  he 
left  the  earth,  he  wrenched  the  fetters  from  off  each 
bondman's  foot,  and,  as  he  began  his  flight  to  heaven, 
dropped  them  down  into  the  bottomless  pit  of  Hell, 
where  they  may  find  who  seek. 

In  his  person,  Washington  was  six  feet  high,  and 

*  Sparks,  x.  163;  xii.  181. 


WASHINGTON.  141 

rather  slender.  His  limbs  were  long;  his  hands 
were  uncommonly  large,  his  chest  broad  and  full,  his 
head  was  exactly  round,  and  the  hair  brown  in  man- 
hood, but  gray  at  fifty  ;  his  forehead  rather  low  and  re- 
treating, the  nose  large  and  massy,  the  mouth  wide  and 
firm,  the  chin  square  and  heavy,  the  cheeks  full  and 
ruddy  in  early  life.  His  eyes  were  blue  and  hand- 
some, but  not  quick  or  nervous.  He  required  specta- 
tacles  to  read  with  at  fifty.  He  was  one  of  the  best 
riders* in  the  United  States,  but,  like  some  other  good 
riders,  awkward  and  shambling  in  his  walk.  He  was 
stately  in  his  bearing,  reserved,  distant,  and  appar- 
ently haughty.  Shy  among  women,  he  was  not  a 
great  talker  in  any  company,  but  a  careful  observer 
and  listener.  He  read  the  natural  temper  of  men,  but 
not  always  aright.  He  seldom  smiled.  He  did  not 
laugh  with  his  face,  but  in  his  body,  and  while  calm 
above,  below  the  diaphragm  his  laughter  was  copious 
and  earnest.  Like  many  grave  persons,  he  was  fond 
of  jokes  and  loved  humorous  stories.  He  had  negro 
story-tellers  to  regale  him  with  fun  and  anecdotes  at 
Mount  Vernon.  He  was  not  critical  about  his  food, 
but  fond  of  tea.  He  took  beer  or  cider  at  dinner,  and 
occasionally  wine.  He  hated  drunkenness,  gaming, 
and  tobacco.  He  had  a  hearty  love  of  farming,  and 
of  private  life.  There  was  nothing  of  the  politician 
in  him,  no  particle  of  cunning.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  industrious  of  men.  Not  an  elegant  or  accurate 


142  WASHINGTON. 

writer,  he  yet  took  great  pains  with  style,  and,  after 
the  Revolution,  carefully  corrected  the  letters  he  had 
written  in  the  time  of  the  French  War,  more  than 
thirty  years  before.  He  was  no  orator,  like  Jeffer- 
son, Franklin,  Madison,  and  others,  who  had  great 
influence  in  American  affairs.  He  never  made  a 
speech.  The  public  papers  were  drafted  for  him, 
and  he  read  them  when  the  occasion  came.  Wash- 
ington was  no  Democrat.  Like  the  Federal  party 
he  belonged  to,  he  had  little  confidence  in  the  people. 
He  thought  more  of  the  Judicial  and  Executive  De- 
partments than  of  the  Legislative  body.  He  loved 
a  strong  central  power,  not  local  self-government. 
A  little  tumult,  like  Shays's  insurrection  in  Massachu- 
setts, or  the  rebellion  in  Pennsylvania,  made  him  and 
his  Federal  associates  tremble  for  the  safety  of  the 
Nation.  He  did  not  know  that  "  something  must  be 
forgiven  to  the  spirit  of  Liberty."  In  his  adminis- 
tration as  President,  he  attempted  to  unite  the  two 
parties, — the  Federal  party,  with  its  tendency  to  mon- 
archy, and  perhaps  desire  for  it,  and  the  Democratic 
party,  which  thought  that  the  Government  was  al- 
ready too  strong.  But  there  was  a  quarrel  between 
Hamilton  and  Jefferson,  who  unavoidably  hated  each 
other.  The  Democrats  would  not  serve  in  Washing- 
ton's Cabinet.  The  violent,  arbitrary,  and  invasive 
will  of  Hamilton  acquired  an  undue  influence  over 
Washington,  who  was  beginning,  at  sixty-four,  to  feel 


WASHINGTON.  143 

the  effects  of  age ;  and  he  inclined  more  and  more 
to  severe  laws  and  consolidated  power,  while  on  the 
other  part  the  Nation  became  more  and  more  demo- 
cratic. Washington  went  on  his  own  way,  and  yet 
filled  his  Cabinet  with  men  less  tolerant  of  Repub- 
licanism than  himself. 

Of  all  the  great  men  whom  Virginia  has  produced, 
Washington  was  least  like  the  State  that  bore  him. 
He  is  not  Southern  in  many  particulars.  In  charac- 
ter, he  is  as  much  a  New  Englander  as  either  Ad- 
ams. Yet,  wonderful  to  tell,  he  never  understood 
New  England.  The  slaveholder,  bred  in  Virginia, 
could  not  comprehend  a  state  of  society  where  the 
Captain  or  the  Colonel  came  from  the  same  class  as 
the  common  soldier,  and  that  off  duty  they  should 
be  equals.  He  thought  common  soldiers  should  only 
be  provided  with  food  and  clothes,  and  have  no  pay. 
Their  families  should  not  be  provided  for  by  the 
State.  He  wanted  the  officers  to  be  "gentlemen," 
and,  as  much  as  possible,  separate  from  the  soldier.* 
He  asked  the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  of  1775,  to 
impress  men  into  the  Revolutionary  Army,  and  to 
force  them  to  fight  for  the  liberty  of  not  being  forced 
to  fight.  He  finds  more  fault  with  New  England  in 
one  year  than  with  all  the  other  nine  States  in  seven 
years.  He  complains  of  the  egregious  want  of  pub- 

*  He  thought  the  government  of  an  army  must  be  a  perfect  des- 
potism. Hildreth,  iii.  pp.  163-166. 


144  WASHINGTON. 

lie  spirit  in  New  England ;  but  little  Massachusetts 
provided  more  men  and  more  money  than  all  the 
wide  States  south  of  Mason's  and  Dixon's  Line,  and 
drove  her  Tories  down  to  Halifax,  while  the  Southern 
States  kept  theirs  at  home  !  While  he  was  uttering 
his  murmurs,  the  little  State  of  Rhode  Island  had 
more  than  four  thousand  soldiers  and  sailors  in  actual 
service ;  yet  her  whole  population  was  not  sixty 
thousand  souls.  Thus  one  fifteenth  of  her  entire 
population,  counting  men,  women,  and  children,  was 
in  active  service  at  one  time.*  In  like  ratio,  Vir- 
ginia should  have  had  forty  thousand  soldiers  in  the 
field.  Yet,  in  1780,  General  Arnold,  the  traitor, 
with  less  than  two  thousand  men,  ravaged  in  the 
State  of  Virginia  for  five  months.  Jefferson  did  noth- 
ing against  him.  Washington  does  not  complain  of 
Virginia's  egregious  want  of  public  spirit.  He  never 
understood  New  England ;  never  loved  it,  never  did 
it  full  justice.  It  has  been  said  Washington  was 
not  a  great  soldier;  but  certainly  he  created  an 
army  out  of  the  roughest  materials,  outgeneralled 
all  that  Britain  could  send  against  him,  and  in  the 
mi  1st  of  poverty  and  distress,  organized  victory. 
He  was  not  brilliant  and  rapid.  He  was  slow,  defen- 
sive, and  victorious.  He  made  "  an  empty  bag  stand 
upright,"  which  Franklin  says  is  "hard."  Some  men 
command  the  world,  or  hold  its  admiration  by  their 

*  Sparks' s  American  Biography,  vol.  xix.  p.  384. 


WASHINGTON.  145 

Ideas  or  by  their  Intellect.  Washington  had  neither 
Original  Ideas,  nor  a  deeply-cultured  mind.  He 
commands  by  his  Integrity,  by  his  Justice.  He  loved 
Power  by  instinct,  and  strong  Government  by  reflec- 
tive choice.  Twice  he  was  made  Dictator,  with  abso- 
lute power,  and  never  abused  the  awful  and  despotic 
trust.  The  monarchic  soldiers  and  civilians  would 
make  him  King.  He  trampled  on  their  offer,  and 
went  back  to  his  fields  of  corn  and  tobacco  at  Mount 
Vernon.  The  grandest  act  of  his  public  life  was  to 
give  up  his  power ;  the  most  magnanimous  deed  of 
his  private  life  was  to  liberate  his  slaves. 

Washington  is  the  first  man  of  his  type ;  when  will 
there  be  another?  As  yet  the  American  rhetori- 
cians do  not  dare  tell  half  his  excellence ;  but  the 
people  should  not  complain. 

tffc^te.4t 

Cromwell  is  the  greatest  Anglo-Saxon  who-  was 
ever  a  Ruler  on  a  large  scale.  In  intellect  he  was 
immensely  superior  to  Washington  ;  in  integrity,  im- 
measurably below  him.  For  one  thousand  years  no 
king  in  Christendom  has  shown  such  greatness,  or 
gives  us  so  high  a  type  of  manly  virtue.  He  never 
dissembled.  He  sought  nothing  for  himself.  In  him 
there  was  no  unsound  spot ;  nothing  little  or  mean  in 
his  character.  The  whole  was  clean  and  presentable. 
We  think  better  of  mankind  because  he  lived,  adorn- 
ing the  earth  with  a  life  so  noble.  Shall  we  make 
an  Idol  of  him,  and  worship  it  with  huzzas  on  the 
10 


146  WASHINGTON. 

Fourth  of  July,  and  with  stupid  Rhetoric  on  other 
days?  Shall  we  build  him  a  great  monument,  found- 
ing it  in  a  slave  pen?  His  glory  already  covers  the 
Continent.  More  than  two  hundred  places  bear  his 
name.  He  is  revered  as  "The  Father  of  his  Coun- 
try." The  people  are  his  memorial.  The  New  York 
Indians  hold  this  tradition  of  him.  "Alone,  of  all 
white  men,"  say  they,  "he  has  been  admitted  to  the 
Indian  Heaven,  because  of  his  justice  to  the  Red 
Men.  He  lives  in  a  great  palace,  built  like  a  fort. 
All  the  Indians,  as  they  go  to  Heaven,  pass  by,  and 
he  himself  is  in  his  uniform,  a  sword  at  his  side, 
walking  to  and  fro.  They  bow  reverently,  with  great 
humility.  He  returns  the  salute,  but  says  nothing." 
Such  is  the  reward  of  his  Justice  to  the  Red  Men. 

God  be  thanked  for  such  a  man. 
• 

"  A  soul  supreme,  in  each  hard  instance  tried, 
Above  all  pain,  all  passion,  and  all  pride, 
The  rage  of  power,  the  blast  of  public  breath, 
The  lust  of  lucre,  and  the  dread  of  death." 


JOHN    ADAMS. 


(1*0 


JOHN    ADAMS. 


IN  1634  the  General  Court  of  the  Colony  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  made  a  grant  of  lands  at  Mount 
Wollaston  (now  in  the  town  of  Quincy)  to  enlarge 
the  town  of  Boston.  In  1636  the  inhabitants  of 
Boston  granted  some  of  those  lands  in  lots  to  indi- 
vidual settlers,  and  even  to  new  residents,  who 
presently  formed  a  church,  and  settled  their  minis- 
ters. In  1640  they  were  incorporated  as  a  town, 
which  bore  the  name  of  Braintree.  I  find  forty 
acres  of  land  granted  to  one  Henry  Adams.  He 
died  in  1646,  and  left  an  estate  appraised  at  sev- 
enty-five pounds,  thirteen  shillings.  It  consisted  of 
the  land,  a  barn,  and  a  house,  which  had  one  kitchen, 
one  parlor,  and  one  chamber  in  the  attic,  where 
dwelt  the  eleven  persons  who  made  up  the  family. 
The  inventory  of  his  estate,  taken  after  his  death, 
catalogues  "  three  beds,"  which  must  have  contained 
them  all  at  night.  He  left  also  one  cow,  one  heifer, 
swine,  some  old  books,  and  a  silver  spoon.  He  was 
grandfather's  grandfather  to  the  second  President  of 

(149) 


150  JOHN    ADAMS. 

the  United  States.  It  was  not  a  conspicuous  fam- 
ily in  those  times,  though  it  has  since  borne  two 
Presidents,  and  is  still  vigorous  and  flourishing, 
promising  I  know  not  how  great  future  glories. 
On  the  other  side  of  the  water  antiquaries  and  gen- 
ealogists find  that  the  family  was  old  and  baronial. 

Indeed,  the  name  would  justify  a  larger  genea- 
logical claim.  The  Adamses  ought  to  be  an  old 
family  and  a  great.  According  to  the  received  ac- 
counts, it  is  the  first  in  the  world.  Look  at  the  far- 
famed  descendant  of  this  Puritanic  Henry  of  Brain- 
tree,  and  see  what  he  did  and  suffered,  and  what 
extraordinary  events  he  thereby  brought  to  pass. 

To  understand  his  life,  divide  it  into  six  parts :  — 

I.  His  childhood  and  youth,  from  birth  till  twenty- 
three.     1735  to  1758. 

II.  His   doings   as  a  lawyer  in  Suffolk  County, 
from  twenty-three  till  about  forty.     1758  to  1775. 

III.  His  work  as  a  politician  in  Congress  and  at 
home,  from  forty  till  forty-three.     1775  to  1778. 

IV.  Diplomatic   services  in  Europe,  from  forty- 
three  till   fifty-two.     1778  to  1787. 

V.  His  conduct  in  the  Executive  of  the  United 
States  as  Vice-President  and  President,  from  fifty- 
two  to  sixty-five.     1787  to  1800. 

VI.  His  demeanor  in  private  life,  from  sixty-five 
till  nearly  ninety-one,  the  close  of  all.     1800  to  1826. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  151 

i 

I. 

His  CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH. 

JOHN  ADAMS  was  born  October  19,  1735.  His 
father,  John  Adams,  then  forty-four  years  old,  and 
married  but  the  year  before,  was  a  farmer,  with 
small  means,  living  in  that  part  of  Braintree  now 
called  Quincy ;  a  farmer  and  a  shoemaker  at  the 
same  time,  says  the  local  tradition.  When  he  died, 
in  1760,  he  left  an  estate  of  thirteen  hundred  and 
thirty  pounds  nine  shillings  and  eightpence  —  about 
four  or  five  thousand  dollars  in  our  money.  He 
was  an  officer  in  the  British  militia,  and  for  several 
years  one  of  the  Selectmen  of  the  town,  and  also  for 
many  years  a  deacon  of  the  church.  He  seems  to 
have  been  a  well-educated  man,  thoughtful,  thrifty, 
careful,  with  considerable  capacity,  genuine  piety, 
and  great  uprightness  of  character.  Integrity  is  a 
virtue  his  son  could  inherit  if  virtue  runs  in  families. 
John  was  the  eldest  child  of  this  household,  which,  at 
length,  counted  twelve,  — a  number  then  not  uncom- 
mon. Of  his  childhood  and  early  youth  I  find  noth- 
ing on  record.  In  his  sixteenth  year  he  entered  Har- 
vard College.  He  had  studied  with  two  tutors  —  Mr. 
Cleverly,  the  Episcopalian  Minister  of  the  town, 
and  Mr.  Marsh,  the  reader  at  the  Episcopal  Church. 
Slender  help  it  was  that  he  got  from  them.  He  was 


152  JOHN    ADAMS. 

graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1755,  ranking  as 
fourteenth  in  a  class  of  twenty-four.  In  the  classes 
the  precedence  was  dependent  upon  the  social  condi- 
tion of  the  parents  ;  and  as  to  that,  his  mother,  a  Boyl- 
ston  from  Brookline,  seems  to  have  been  considered 
of  higher  family  than  that  of  the  deacon,  his  father. 
The  learning  he  brought  out  of  college  would  not 
now  qualify  a  boy  to  enter  there.  But  it  appears 
that  he  stood  well 'in  his  scholarship.  Certainly  he 
had  "  small  Latin,  and  less  Greek."  A  year  after 
his  graduation  I  find  him  studying  Virgil,  mastering 
thirty  lines  in  one  day,  and  "  about  forty  "  the  next, 
in  the  precious  spare  time  left  to  him  by  his  more 
serious  work.  Three  years  later  he  is  reading 
Horace.  In  1760  he  writes  in  his  Diary,  "  In  con- 
sequence of  the  ignorance  of  parents,  masters  Clev- 
erly, Marsh,  Waters,  Mayhew,  &c.,  and  by  reason 
of  the  ignorance  of  my  instructors  in  the  more  ad- 
vanced years  of  m}' life,  my  mind  has  lain  uncultured, 
so  that  at  twenty-five  I  am  obliged  to  study  Homer 
and  Horace.  Proh  dolor  J"  Certainly  he  got  lit- 
tle classic  culture  from  Harvard  then.  Yet  his  class 
contained  men  afterwards  distinguished,  who,  per- 
haps, got  less  even  than  he.  The  standard  of  what 
was  called  Education,  was  then  exceeding  low.  But 
then,  as  now,  scholarship  and  manhood  were  differ- 
ent things,  and  did  not  always  ride  in  the  same 
panniers.  Presently,  after  graduating,  he  went  to 


JOHN    ADAMS.  153 

Worcester  to  keep  a  common  school,  which  was 
kept  continuously  throughout  the  year,  in  a  town 
of  perhaps  fifteen  hundred  inhabitants,  where  he 
seems  to  have  taught  all  disciples,  from  A,  B,  C,  up- 
wards to  Latin  and  Greek,  or  as  far  as  his  pupils 
could  go.  He  thought  his  labor  was  great,  and  his 
pay  small.  He  "boards  round,"  as  the  phrase  was 
then ;  a  little  while  here,  a  little  while  there.  It 
was  the  custom  of  the  times.  I  do  not  find  exactly 
what  his  salary  was,  but  the  town  had  several  dis- 
trict schools,  each  keeping  part  of  the  year,  and 
raised  but  seventy  pounds,  or  two  hundred  and 
thirty-three  dollars  forty-four  cents,  for  the  support 
of  them  all.  Adams's  share  could  not  have  been 
more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars,  or 
perhaps  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  in  addition 
to  his  board.  He  does  not  like  the  business,  and 
now  and  then  grumbles  about  it.  "The  mischievous 
tricks,  the  perpetual  invincible  prate,  and  the  stupid 
dulness  of  my  scholars,  roused  my  passions."*  His 
situation  was  extremely  irksome.  He  says,  "  The 
school  is  indeed  a  school  of  affliction.  A  large 
number  -of  little  nurslings,  just  capable  of  lisping 
A,  B,  C,  and  troubling  the  master."  Some  one 
tells  him  he  may  make  those  little  creatures  "plants 
of  renown,"  and  "  cedars  of  Lebanon."  But  Mr. 

*  Adams's  Life  of  Adams,  ii.  88 ;  i.  22.     See,  too,  Talk  of  J.  Q. 
Adams  about  that,  ib. 


154  JOHN    ADAMS. 

Adams  tells  him  "that  keeping  this  school  any 
length  of  time  would  make  a  base  weed  and  igno- 
ble shrub  of  me."  He  kept  it  nearly  three  years, 
however,  and  yet  grew  up  to  a  pretty  respectable 
tree,  not  yet  done  blossoming  in  the  Politics  of 
America,  but  still  fresh  and  vigorous  as  a  hundred 
years  ago.  It  came  of  good  seed  that  tree.  The 
people  of  the  town  pleased  him  no  better.  "  All 
the  conversation  was  dry  disputes  upon  politics 
and  rural  obscene  wit."  Yet  there  were  intelli- 
gent and  reading  men  in  the  little  village.  Mr. 
Adams's  proclivity  to  grumble  appears  early.  How 
he  kept  school  I  know  not.  But  as  he  went  for  two 
years,  and  staid  more  than  three,  it  would  appear 
he  surpassed  other  teachers. 

He  must  choose  a  profession,  this  young  Hercules. 
His  father  intended  him  for  the  Christian  Ministry. 
His  uncle  Joseph,  the  eldest  of  his  grandfather's 
twelve  children,  had  before  him  entered  that  pro- 
fession. The  pulpit  then  absorbed  most  of  the  best 
talent  of  New  England,  which  now  runs  away  from 
it  with  swift  acceleration.  His  nature  inclined  him 
to  become  a  minister,  for  he  was  a  devout  man, 
severe  in  his  morality,  warring  against  all  the  sins 
of  passion,  austere,  fond  of  theological  books  and  of 
ecclesiastical  ceremonies.  But  he  had  a  profound 
need  of  looking  all  important  things  in  the  face, 
and  taking  nothing  on  hearsay,  or  at  second  hand. 


JOHN  ADAMS.  155 

He  was  possessed  with  a  love  of  freedom,  and  a 
contempt  for  all  bigots  and  haters  of  mankind.  It 
soon  appeared  clearly  that  a  New  England  pulpit 
was  no  place  for  him.  He  became  acquainted  with  a 
noble,  generous  young  man,  of  fine  genius,  admirable 
culture,  who  aspired  to  the  best  parish  in  the  Prov- 
ince. But  he  was  suspected  of  Arminianism,  and 
accordingly  "despised  by  some,  ridiculed  by  others, 
and  detested  by  most."  "  People  are  not  disposed  to 
inquire  for  piety,  integrity,  good  sense,  or  learning 
in  a  young  preacher,  but  for  stupidity  (for  so  I  must 
call  the  pretended  sanctity  of  some  -absolute  dunces) , 
irresistible  grace,  and  original  sin."  So  he  wrote  on 
his  twenty-first  birthday  :  "  The  pulpit  is  no  place 
for  you,  young  man  !  and  the  sooner  you  give  up  all 
thoughts  of  it  the  better  for  you,  though  the  worse 
for  it,  and  for  all  such  as  look  up  to  it."  His  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  profession  of  medicine,  board- 
ing as  he  did  with  Dr.  Willard,  who  "  had  a  large 
practice,  a  good  reputation  for  skill,  and  a  pretty 
library."  He  read  a  good  deal  in  Cheyne,  Syden- 
ham,  Van  Swieten,  but  turned  away  his  eyes  from 
the  healing  art.  Nay,  he  seriously  thought  of  the 
opposite  art  —  that  of  killing.  w  Nothing  but  want  of 
interest  and  patronage  prevented  me  from  enlisting 
in  the  army.  Could  I  have  obtained  a  troop  of  horse 
or  a  companj1-  of  foot,  I  should  infallibly  have  been  a 


156  JOHN   ADAMS. 

soldier."  *  It  was  in  1756,  the  time  of  the  French 
War,  and  all  New  England  blazed  with  military  ar- 
dor. Trade  and  farming  attracted  his  attention,  but 
he  finally  fixed  his  eyes  upon  the  Law,  and  determined 
on  that  for  his  calling.  On  his  twenty-first  birthday, 
in  the  same  letter  before  quoted,  he  writes,  "  If  I  can 
gain  the  honor  of  treading  in  the  rear,  and  silently 
admiring  the  noble  air  and  gallant  achievements  of 
the  foremost  rank,  I  shall  think  myself  worthy  of  a 
louder  triumph  than  if  I  had  headed  the  whole  army 
of  Orthodox  preachers,  f  The  study  and  practice 
of  law,  I  am  sure,  does  not  dissolve  the  obligations 
of  morality  or  of  Religion." 

So  he  agrees  to  study  with  a  Mr.  Putnam,  a  thriv- 
ing lawyer  of  Worcester,  for  two  years,  and  to  pay 
him  one  hundred  dollars  for  the  instruction  when  he 
may  become  able  to  pay  the  debt.  Here  he  contin- 
ued till  October,  1758,  keeping  school  six  hours  a 
day,  and  studying  Law  most  of  the  spare  time,  as 
his  health  and  temper  allowed.  His  educational 
helps  at  Worcester  were  not  to  be  despised.  There 
were  several  educated  and  thoughtful  men  there,  who 
had  broken  away  from  the  ecclesiastical  chains  which 
yet  bound  so  many.  The  war  forced  men  to  think 
and  discuss  great  matters,  the  result  of  which  is  re- 

*  Letter  of  October  19,  1756,  Works  i.  36;  and  also  letter  of 
March  13,  1817,  p.  38.  f  Works,  i.  37,  and  ii.  31. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  157 

fleeted  in  one  of  his  earliest  letters.  He  read  the 
works  of  some  thoughtful  men,  —  Lord  Bacon,  Bo- 
lingbroke,  Morgan,  Bishop  Butler,  not  less  than  Til- 
lotson  and  Baxter.  The  influence  of  the  Freethinkers, 
Bolingbroke  and  Morgan,  is  obvious  and  decisive. 

He  studied  laboriously  the  law  books  deemed 
essential  in  those  days,  some  of  which  look  rather 
frightful  to  young  lawyers  now  that  the  legal  road  is 
straightened,  smoothed,  and  made  easy.  He  loves 
to  go  to  the  original  source  of  things.  This  appears 
in  his  early  habits  of  study.  But  he  had  great  diffi- 
culties to  contend  with,  whereof  poverty  was  the 
least.  His  Diary  tells  us  what  he  thought  of  himself. 
He  affected  wit  and  humor.  His  attention  was  un- 
steady and  irregular.  "  He  had  a  remarkable  absence 
of  mind,  a  morose  and  unsocial  disposition."  He  com- 
plains of  his  own  idleness,  late  rising,  waste  of  time 
in  day-dreams,  and  gallavanting  the  girls.  This  latter 
annoyed  him  for  a  long  time,  till  he  remedied  that 
mischief  in  the  most  natural  way.  He  charges  him- 
self with  "rash  and  profane  swearing,"  with  "viru- 
lence "  against  divers  people.  But  his  intense  vanity 
was  his  greatest  foe  in  early  life.  "  Vanity,"  writes 
the  candid  youth  of  twenty,  "  is  my  cardinal  vice  and 
cardinal  folly."*  Envy,  likewise,  gnawed  at  the  heart 
of  the  poor  lad  ;  but  he  keeps  free  from  the  vices  of 
passion. 

*  Works,  ii.  16,  25,  and  elsewhere. 


158  JOHN   ADAMS. 

II. 

His  LIFE  AS  A  LAWYER.     1758-1774. 

After  his  two  years  of  study  at  Worcester,  he  re- 
turns to  Braintree,  is  admitted  to  practice  in  the 
Superior  Court  of  Massachusetts,  October  5,  1758, 
and  establishes  himself  as  a  lawyer  in  his  native  vil- 
lage. But  his  legal  education  is  only  begun.  In  the 
midst  of  internal  difficulties,  he  toils  away  at  his 
work,  not  without  sighing  for  his  old  school  at 
Worcester,  which  he  so  much  disliked  while  there. 
His  plan  of  legal  study  was  quite  comprehensive.  He 
wished  to  understand  Natural  Law,  which  is  justice, 
and  so  would  study  the  great  writers  on  Ethics,  the 
Common  Law  of  England,  and  the  Statutes,  and  also 
the  Civil  Law  of  Rome,  which  has  had  such  influ- 
ence on  the  administration  of  Justice  throughout  all 
Christendom.  Such  study  demanded  the  reading  of 
many  books  —  a  weariness  to  his  flesh ;  for  he  was 
lazy  and  impetuous  by  turns,  and  unfit  for  the  schol- 
ar's slow,  silent  work.  -  But  his  ambition  was  intense 
and  persistent,  though  he  grumbled  at  the  difficulty 
of  studying  Law  while  practising  it  during  "  a  ram- 
bling, roving,  vagrant,  vagabond  life,"  "  of  here  and 
everywhere."  His  townsmen  were  disposed  to  honor 
their  young  lawyer  a  little.  They  therefore  elected 


JOHN  ADAMS.  159 

him  one  of  the  highway  Surveyors,  and  he  willing- 
ly undertook  the  business  of  mending  the  roads  of 
Braintree  —  his  first  official  work.  His  first  cause 
in  court  was  a  failure.  His  writ  was  ill  drawn.  He 
feared  it  would  be  so,  and  did  not  wish  to  undertake 
it ;  but  the  "  cruel  reproaches  of  my  mother,"  and 
other  considerations,  misled  him.  However,  he 
overcame  his  own  defeat,  and  after  some  years  had 
a  considerable  business.  Still  his  reputation  grew 
slowly. 

On  the  25th  of  October,  1764,  he  married  Miss 
Abigail  Smith,  daughter  of  Rev.  Mr.  Smith,  minis- 
ter of  Weymouth,  a  town  adjoining  Braintree,  and 
then  he  commenced  housekeeping  on  his  own  ac- 
count. The  course  of  true  love,  it  seems,  had  its 
troubles  in  his,  as  in  many  cases.  Mr.  Smith  held 
his  daughter  in  high  consideration.  He  had  married 
the  daughter  of  Colonel  John  Quincy,  who  was  of 
an  aristocratic  Braintree  family,  having  some  prop- 
erty, and  being  a  good  deal  engrossed  in  the  public 
affairs  of  the  Colony.  Her  grandmother  was  named 
Norton,  and  came  from  the  town  of  Hingham,  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  was  of  the  same  family  as  the  fa- 
mous John  Norton,  a  dreadful  minister  of  Ipswich, 
and  afterwards  of  Boston,  who  helped  to  hang  the 
Quakers.  John  Norton  was  a  man  very  pious,  it  was 
said,  but  in  his  case,  it  was  "grace  grafted  on  a  crab 
stock."  She  was  also  a  daughter  of  the  minister  at 


160  JOHN   ADAMS. 

Hingbam,  and  descended  from  the  famous  Thomas 
Shepard,  first  minister  of  Newton,  now  Cambridge. 
These  were  the  aristocracy  and  "  first  families "  of 
that  day.  The  minister  and  his  daughters  belonged 
to  the  West  End  of  Wey mouth,  for  even  Wey mouth 
had  its  West  End  at  that  time.  But  poor  John  Ad- 
ams, a  man  of  obscure  descent,  did  not  belong  to  the 
West  End  of  anything.  Should  he  be  allowed  to  carry 
off  such  a  prize  ?  Tradition  says  the  Reverend  father 
thought  not.  He  had  three  daughters,  Mary,  or,  as 
she  was  then  called,  Polly,  the  elder,  Abby,  the 
middle  one,  and  Betsey,  the  younger.  Mr.  Richard 
Cranch,  also  of  Braintree,  but  born  in  England,  was 
a  man  of  some  talents,  with  great  mechanical  skill, 
wherewith  he  had  fought  his  own  way  to  education, 
and  had  acquired  reputation  and  some  wealth  as  a 
lawyer.  He  also  came  a  wooing  at  the  same  man- 
sion, addressing  himself  to  Miss  Polly,  while  Mr. 
Adams  made  similar  visits  on  behalf  of  Miss  Abby. 
Mr.  Cranch  was  warmly  welcomed  by  the  Reverend 
father.  He  treated  him  with  great  consideration. 
On  Sunday  nights,  which  were  even  then,  as  now, 
consecrated  to  the  pious  uses  of  the  Religion  of  Young 
Hearts,  Mr.  Cranch's  horse  was  well  cared  for  at  the 
parochial  barn,  and  he  was  himself  treated  with  great 
kindness  and  consideration  in  the  parochial  house. 
But  John  Adams  was  thought  a  disloyal  subject  by 
the  minister;  hot,  impetuous,  impatient,  uncertain, 


JOHN   ADAMS.  161 

with  nothing  on  hand,  and  no  decided  future.  So, 
while  the  daughter  smiled,  the  father  frowned  on  the 
poor,  obscure  lover.  He  treated  him  rudely,  neg- 
lected him,  overlooked  and  annoyed  him  not  a  little. 
His  horse  ate  hay  on  Sunday  night.  Of  course  all 
the  little  country  parish  knew  how  his  affairs  were 
going  on  in  the  minister's  family,  and  the  story  soon 
spread  to  the  regions  round  about. 

Mr.  Smith  had  told  each  of  his  daughters  that  the 
Sunday  before  their  marriage  he  would  preach  them 
a  sermon,  from  whatever  text  they  should  choose. 
When  Mr.  Cranch  was  ready,  Miss  Polly  selected 
"  Mary  hath  chosen  that  good  part,  which  shall  not 
be  taken  away  from  her."  John  and  Abby  were  both 
present  to  hear  the  discourse,  and  all  the  parish  sat 
and  listened  with  greedy  wonder.  The  old  gentle- 
man expatiated  upon  the  "  good  part."  It  was  OBE- 
DIENCE. He  dwelt  with  great  unction  on  the  neces- 
sity of  obedience  on  the  part  of  children  to  their 
parents.  It  was  especially  important  that  daughters 
should  obey  in  all  things ;  and  more  particularly  in 
the  matter  of  selecting  a  husband.  "  And  Mary  hath 
chosen  that  good  part."  But,  in  due  time,  Mr.  Ad- 
ams also  had  a  cage  ready  for  the  minister's  second 
bird.  Abby  must  choose  her  text,  the  bright  girl. 
She  took,  "John  came  neither  eating  nor  drinking, 
and  they  say,  He  hath  a  devil."  The  old  man  objected, 
but  the  daughter  would  not  be  entreated,  and  he 
11 


162  JOHN  ADAMS. 

preached  on  the  text  in  the  case  of  the  aforesaid 
John  and  Abby,  and  to  the  no  little  delight  of  the 
parish.* 

Miss  Abby  was  an  admirable  woman,  religious 
without  fanaticism  or  bigotry,  affectionate  as  wife 
and  mother,  conscientious  to  the  last  degree,  but  not 
at  all  austere ;  thrifty,  wise,  prudent,  and  forecast- 
ing, and  with  calm,  cool  judgment,  which  saw  the 
right  proportion  of  all  things.  If  Adams  was  not 
blessed  in  his  courtship,  he  was  in  his  marriage.  Few 
men  had  ever  a  nobler  mate.  He  Ions:  afterwards 

O 

writes  of  his  marriage,  that  it  was  "  the  source  of  all " 
his  w  felicity."  Her  education  was  quite  scanty  and 
irregular;  she  was  never  sent  to  school,  but  picked 
up  a  little  here  and  there.  She  read  a  few  books, 
chiefly  poetical,  it  seems ;  but  the  Spectator  was 
among  them.  So  were  the  historic  plays  of  Shake- 
speare, and  perhaps  the  others.  These  were  faithful- 
ly read,  judiciously  pondered  over,  and  abundantly 
quoted  during  all  her  life,  in  her  letters.  She  said 
herself,  — 

"  The  little  knowledge  I  have  gained 
Was  all  from  simple  nature  drained."  f 

*  The  story  is  differently  told  by  other  authorities. 

t  Her  father,  a  cautious  man,  taught,  above  all  things,  never  to 
speak  ill  of  anybody;  to  say  all  the  handsome  things  she  could 
of  persons,  but  no  evil.  But  her  grandfather,  John  Quincy,  was 
remarkable  for  never  praising  anybody ;  he  did  not  often  speak  evil, 
but  he  seldom  spoke  well.  Adams's  Works,  ii.  306. 


JOHN   ADAMS.  163 

The  education  of  women  was  greatly  neglected  in 
New  England  by  the  Puritans.  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
had  made  them  afraid  of  her  strong  and  subtle 
mind,  accomplished  with  conscientious  culture.  In 
Adams's  youth  it  was  fashionable  to  ridicule  "  female 
learning." 

After  his  marriage  to  the  minister's  daughter  of 
Weymouth,  the  descendant  from  such  reverend  an- 
cestors, his  profession  and  business  received  a  con- 
siderable increase.  A  year  or  two  later  his  towns- 
men honored  him  by  making  him  one  of  the  Select- 
men of  Braintree.  He  entered  upon  his  office  the 
4th  of  March,  1766.  He  mentions  the  fact  with 
hearty  exultation,  not  thinking  of  another  Fourth  of 
March,  thirty-one  years  later,  General  Washington 
and  fifteen  States  in  the  background.  For  four  gen- 
erations some  of  his  family  had  been  members  of  the 
board  of  Selectmen.  Before  long  he  became  well 
known  in  the  county.  He  took  lively  interest  in  op- 
posing the  Stamp  Act,  and  got  a  town  meeting  called 
at  Braintree,  to  instruct  her  representative  in  the 
General  Court  to  oppose  this  wicked  measure,  and 
resist  its  execution.  He  drafted  the  Resolutions,  and 
the  town  meeting  passed  them  unanimously.  Forty 
other  towns  soon  accepted  them  without  alteration. 
They  contain  brave  words,  thoughtfully  spoken  at  the 
right  time.*  His  celebrated  Revolutionary  kinsman, 

*  Works,  Hi.  p.  4C5.    See,  especially,  467,  third  paragraph. 


164  JOHN  ADAMS. 

Samuel  Adams,  adopted  some  of  his  paragraphs,  and 
the  town  of  Boston,  in  Faneuil  Hall,  then  said  "Ay." 
In  the  midst  of  the  Stamp  Act  trouble,  22d  Decem- 
ber, 1765,  Forefathers'  Day,  Sunday,  he  writes  in  his 
journal,  "At  home  with  my  family,  thinking;  "  and 
again,  Christmas  Day,  "At  home,  thinking,  reading, 
searching  concerning  taxation  without  consent ;  con- 
cerning the  great  pause  and  rest  in  business."  * 

There  was  great  matter  for  him  to  think  of.  New 
England  stood  at  the  threshold  of  Revolution,  and 
only  Samuel  Adams  and  a  few  more  saw  where  the 
next  step  would  be.  As  the  people  would  not  ac- 
cept the  stamps,  the  courts  of  justice  were  all  closed. 
Boston  asked  the  Governor  and  Council  to  open  the 
courts,  and  chose  Mr.  Gridley,  James  Otis,  and 
John  Adams  to  defend  their  position.  It  was  a 
great  honor  for  the  young  men,  Otis  and  Adams,  to 
be  employed  in  such  a  cause,  and  to  be  associated 
with  such  counsel  as  Gridley,  the  ablest  lawyer  and 
the  most  elegant  speaker  in  New  England,  f  This 
was  "the  matter"  he  was  "thinking"  about.  He 
believes  the  people  showed  cowardice  by  this  inac- 
tivity, and  too  much  respect  for  the  Act.J  He  says 
the  lawyers,  most  of  them,  became  Tories  and  went 
down  to  Halifax.  "  The  bar  seem  to  behave  like  a 
flock  of  shot  pigeons ! "  "  The  net  seems  to  be 

*  Works,  ii.  162-164.       f  See  Works,  i.  76 ;  ii.  165. 
J  Works,  ii.  155. 


JOHN   ADAMS.  165 

thrown  over  them,  and  they  have  scarcely  courage 
left  to  flounce  and  to  nutter."  *  The  "  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty" were  made  of  other  stuff,  and  so  was  John 
Adams. 

But  the  Stamp  Act  troubles  got  ended  by  the  re- 
peal of  the  law  in  1766.  "  It  was  founded  on  a  mis- 
taken principle."  But  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 
had  already  taken  the  first  needful  step  of  Revolu- 
tion, and  had  called  a  Convention  of  delegates.  All 
the  Colonial  Legislatures  had  been  summoned  to 
meet  at  New  York  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  October, 
1765. f 

In  the  spring  of  1768  Mr.  Adams  removed  his 
family  to  Boston,  living  in  Brattle  Square.  Gov- 
ernor Bernard  offered  him  a  considerable  place  in 
the  Government,  —  the  office  of  Advocate  General. 
Adams  at  once  refused  it.  He  was  poor :  this  of- 
fered him  money.  He  was  ambitious  :  this  assured 
him  respect  and  high  consideration,  and  opened  the 
road  to  all  honor.  But  he  was  just,  and  said,  M  Get 
thee  behind  me,  Satan."  Nay,  he  would  not  ask  to 
be  appointed  Justice  of  the  Peace,  so  cautious  was 
he  of  receiving  favors  which  might  bias  his  judg- 
ment. Yet  he  took  no  active  part  in  politics,  would 
not  speak  at  the  Boston  town  meetings,  then  so  fre- 
quent and  important.  He  would  not  even  attend 

*  Works,  ii.  156.  t  Works,  i.  p.  68,  109. 


166  JOHN  ADAMS. 

them.  He  devoted  himself  to  his  profession  and  to 
the  support  of  his  family.  Yet  he  was  popular  with 
the  Patriotic  party.  The  Sous  of  Liberty  came  at 
night  and  serenaded  him  in  his  house,  close  to  the 
main  guard  of  the  British  soldiers,  who  had  then 
been  quartered  upon  the  suspected  and  rebellious 
town.  He  was  placed  on  the  Committee  to  prepare 
instructions  for  James  Otis,  Thomas  Gushing,  Sam- 
uel Adams,  and  John  Hancock,  the  Boston  Repre- 
sentatives. 

On  March  5,  1770,  the  Boston  Massacre,  so  called, 
occurred.  Captain  Preston,  who  commanded,  and 
the  six  soldiers  who  fired  the  fatal  shot,  were  ar- 
rested and  held  in  jail,  to  be  tried  for  murder.  They 
applied  to  Mr.  Adams  to  defend  them.  He  con- 
sented, against  the  advice  of  all  his  friends.  He  in- 
duced Mr.  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.,  to  aid  in  the  defence. 
Distinguished  lawj'ers  had  declined  to  help  the  sol- 
diers, for  they  feared  the  popular  opinion,  which 
demanded  their  blood.  His  acceptance  of  this  duty 
was  a  most  unpopular  act,  making  him  suspected  of 
favoring  the  Government  whose  soldiers  he  was 
called  upon  to  defend.  It  was  considered  "  ruinous  " 
for  him.  A  great  clamor  was  raised  against  him.  He 
managed  the  case  skilfully.  All  were  acquitted  of 
the  charge  of  murder,  two  only  found  guilty  of  man- 
slaughter. Thus  far  this  was  the  most  valiant  deed 
of  his  life.  It  cost  him  fourteen  or  fifteen  days  of 


JOHN   ADAMS.  167 

most  arduous  work,  and  the  sum  received  in  payment 
of  all  his  labor  and  success  was  nineteen  guineas, 
say,  ninety-five  dollars  !  * 

While  the  case  was  still  pending,  he  was  chosen 
one  of  the  Representatives  of  the  town  of  Boston  to 
the  great  Convention,  16th  of  June,  1770.  I  believe 
Samuel  Adams  brought  this  to  pass.  Now,  for  the 
first  time,  is  he  really  committed  to  the  Politics  of 
the  People.  "  I  consider  the  step  as  a  devotion  of 
my  family  to  ruin,  and  of  myself  to  death,"  said  he.f 
"  At  this  time  I  had  more  business  at  the  bar  than 
any  man  in  the  Province.  My  health  was  feeble,  and 
I  was  throwing  away  as  bright  prospects  as  any  man 
ever  had  before  him.  I  had  devoted  myself  to  end- 
less labor  and  anxiety,  if  not  to  infamy  and  to  death, 
and  that  for  nothing,  except  what  indeed  was,  and 
ought  to  be  all  in  all,  a  sense  of  duty."  He  told  his 
wife ;  she  saw  the  peril,  burst  into  tears,  and  said, 
the  noble  woman,  "  You  have  done  as  you  ought,  and 
I  am  willing  to  share  in  all  that  is  to  come,  and  to 
place  my  trust  in  Providence."  J 

Soon  after,  the  Boston  Representatives,  or,  as  they 
were  then  called,  "  the  Boston  Seat,"  raised  some 
controversy  with  the  Governor.  Governor  Shirley, 

*  Works,  i.  104,  110;  ii.  229. 

t  Works,  ii.  232;  i.  106.     See  remarks  of  John  Quincy  Adams. 

I  Works,  ii.  232. 


1(53  JOHN    ADAMS. 

then  living  in  retirement  at  Roxbury,  hearing  of  it, 
asked,  "Who  are  the  Boston  Seat?"  He  was  told, 
"  Mr.  Gushing,  Mr.  Hancock,  Mr.  Samuel  Adams, 
and  Mr.  John  Adams."  The  old  Governor  replied, 
w  Mr.  Cushing  I  know,  and  Mr.  Hancock  I  know, 
but  where  the  devil  this  brace  of  Adamses  come  from 
I  know  not."  Had  he  lived  a  little  longer,  he  might 
have  found  out  where  they  went  to,  taking  the  Nation 
with  them.* 

In  the  General  Court,  John  Adams  was  of  great 
service  to  the  Patriots.  They  needed  an  able  and 
ready  lawyer.  Thatcher  was  dead  ;  Otis  was  worse 
than  dead,  the  victim  of  his  own  intemperance  and 
of  the  malignant  blows  of  an  assassin.  Mr.  Hawley, 
one  of  the  ablest  and  most  far-sighted  men  in  the 
Province,  lived  at  Northampton,  and  was,  moreover, 
too  melancholy  for  a  principal  leader  in  the  General 
Court.  John  Adams  seemed  made  for  the  vacant 
place  —  a  skilful  lawyer  on  the  People's  side.  You 
find  his  name  on  most  of  the  important  committees, 
and  the  marks  of  his  pen,  his  thought  and  technical 
skill,  in  the  chief  papers  of  that  session.  But  his 
health  failing,  he  declined  reelection,  and  retired  to 
his  farm  at  Braintree,  still  keeping  his  office  in  Bos- 
ton, determined  to  avoid  politics  altogether.  But 
his  profession,  nature,  and  the  circumstances  of  the 

*  He  died  March  24,  1771. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  169 

times,  were  too  strong  for  him.  He  must  take  sides 
with  the  people,  and  against  the  officers  of  the  Crown ; 
and  I  find  his  busy  pen  writing  articles  for  the 
newspapers  in  the  great  controversy  of  the  day. 

Though  no  longer  in  the  General  Court,  it  seems 
that  he  drafted  the  most  important  paper  on  the 
Great  Question  of  those  times,  and  was  called  upon 
to  defend  it.  This  he  promptly  and  ably  did ;  *  and 
Hutchinson  was  foiled  in  his  attempt  to  prove  the 
legal  right  of  Parliament  to  tax  the  Colonies,  or  to 
rule  them  against  their  consent.  Then  came  (1773) 
Dr.  Franklin's  exposure  of  the  letters  of  Hutchinson 
and  Oliver,  who  had  suggested  to  the  British  Gov- 
ernment that  in  New  England  "there  must  be  an 
abridgment  of  what  we  call  British  liberties."  The 
wrath  of  the  people  was  fairly  stirred  by  this  adroit 
movement  of  Franklin  reaching  across  the  sea.f 

May  25,  1773,  was  Election  day  in  Massachu- 
setts. The  House  of  Representatives  chose  John 
Adams  as  one  of  the  Council.  Governor  Hutchin- 
son, who  hated  him  bitterly,  put  his  negative  on  the 
choice,  because  of  w  the  very  conspicuous  part  he 
had  taken  in  opposition  to  the  Government."  But 
soon  the  General  Court  addressed  the  King,  asking 
him  to  remove  Governor  Hutchinson  and  Lieutenant 

*  Works,  i.  118;  ii.  310. 
t  See  ante,  page  28. 


J70  JOHN    ADAMS. 

Governor  Oliver,  both  Massachusetts  men,  both 
traitors.  Hutchinson  went  to  London  to  confer  with 
the  British  Government,  but  he  never  saw  his  native 
land  again.*  No  patriotic  eye  drops  a  tear  on  the 
neglected  grave  of  the  New  England  man  whose 
splendid  talents  and  popular  eloquence  were  de- 
voted to  the  ruin  of  his  native  land,  and  who  strug- 
gled violently  to  put  a  chain  on  the  neck  of  his 
fellow-countrymen.  Hutchiuson  had  prevented 
Adams  from  being  one  of  the  Honorable  Council ; 
but,  before  the  eye  of  the  world,  he  himself  soon 
became  unknown,  and  trampled  in  the  dust. 

The  British  Government  wished  to  control  the 
judges.  It  is  an  old  trick.  "  Let  me  interpret 
the  laws,  I  care  not  who  makes  them,"  is  the 
motto  of  tyrants  to  this  very  day.  Of  course  the 
judges  were  willing:  when  were  they  otherwise? 
But  the  people  of  that  day  refused  to  have  a  chain 
of  gold  put  round  the  court-house  by  the  King,  un- 
der which  all  his  creature  Judges  must  crawl  as  they 
went  in.  One  Chief  Justice,  without  performing 
any  of  the  duties  of  his  office,  actually  took  the 
royal  salary  for  eighteen  months  afterwards.  Three 
of  the  puisne*  judges  could  not  be  relied  upon.  The 
House  adjourned  the  General  Court,  and  asked  the 
Governor  to  remove  the  Chief  Justice.  The  Governor 

*  Adams's  Works,  i.  135. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  171 

forbade  the  adjournment,  and  refused  the  removal. 
What  should  be  done?  Should  such  a  Judge,  who 
himself  is  the  King's  slave,  hold  a  court,  and  de- 
termine the  law  for  freemen?  In  1773  wise  men 
thought  that  such  folly  would  be  ruin  !  John 
Adams  said,  "Impeach  the  Chief  Justice.*  The 
Charter  of  William  and  Mary  gives  the  House  of 
Representatives  the  power."  Other  lawyers  —  law- 
yers are  always  a  timid  class  of  men,  their  maxim 
being  "  stare  decisis  "  —  hesitated.  They  "  did  not 
know ;  "  "  there  was  no  American  precedent."  John 
Adams  was  not  only  careful  to  follow  the  old  pre- 
cedents that  were  good,  but  also  to  make  the  good 
precedents  that  we  use  now.  The  Chief  Justice 
was  impeached ;  ninety-two  to  eight  in  the  House 
of  Representatives.  When  Jurors  came  into  the 
Courts  of  Suffolk  County  they  would  not  be  sworn. 
Said  they,  "We  shall  not  sit  under  a  Judge  im- 
peached of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors."  Jurors 
did  the  same  all  over  the  State.  The  Royal  Court 
never  sat  again.  Nay,  there  were  no  courts  till 
after  April  19,  1775,  when  the  Provincial  Govern- 
ment set  things  on  their  feet  again.  Here  was  a 
deadlock  for  the  Government.  Hutchinson  and  Oli- 
ver, and  their  gang  of  Tories,  were  routed  in  the 
House,  routed  in  the  Courts,  and  routed  before  the 

People. 

*  Adams's  Works,  ii.  329. 


172  JOHN    ADAMS. 

It  was  the  beginning  of  the  end ;  but,  generally, 
men  did  not  see  it,  only  such  men  as  Samuel  Adams, 
Joseph  Hawley,  and  the  far-sighted  Franklin,  al- 
ready advising  a  General  Congress.*  Adams,  then 
thirty-eight  years  old,  was  the  ablest  lawyer  in  New 
England,  perhaps  in  America.  He  had  the  right 
thought  at  the  right  time,  and  the  courage  to  make 
that  thought  a  thing.  Shall  such  a  man  be  left  "  to 
live  on  potatoes  and  Indian  meal "  at  Braintree,  with 
nothing  to  do  ?  Massachusetts  thought  otherwise. 


III. 

MR.  ADAMS  AS  A  POLITICIAN  IN  THE  AMERICAN 
CONGRESS.     1774-1777. 

The  Boston  Port  Bill,  and  other  revengeful  acts, 
were  passed  through  the  Parliament  of  Great  Brit- 
ain in  March,  1774.  In  the  following  13th  May, 
General  Gage,  the  Military  Governor  of  Massachu- 
setts, came  to  Boston  with  his  army,  to  dragoon 
the  people  into  submission.  As  the  Judges  were 
impeached,  the  Courts  were  all  closed,  business  was 
at  an  end,  and  grass  growing  on  the  Long  Wharf. 
Adams  did  not  receive  a  shilling  a  week  from  his 
profession. 

*  Adams's  Works,  i.  134. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  173 

The  17th  of  June  is  a  marked  epoch  in  American 
History.  On  that  day,  1774,  the  General  Court,  in 
session  at  Salem,  sat  with  its  doors  bolted  fast. 
"No  man  must  go  out  to  tell  what  they  are  doing, 
nor  come  in  to  interrupt  them."  They  chose,  by  a 
vote  of  one  hundred  and  seventeen  ayes  to  twelve 
nays,  James  Bowdoin,  Thomas  Gushing,  Robert 
Treat  Paine,  Samuel  Adams,  and  John  Adams,  as 
delegates  to  the  Continental  Congress,  to  meet  at 
Philadelphia  on  the  first  of  the  next  September. 
Adams  doubted  his  own  ability,  doubted  the  Na- 
tion's genius.*  Mr.  Bowdoin  did  not  attend.  He 
had  too  much  money  to  risk  in  such  an  enterprise, 
too  much  respectability  to  be  a  member  of  a  Revo- 
lutionary Congress. 

The  four  delegates  rode  to  Philadelphia  in  a  coach 
— "  four  poor  pilgrims."  Their  journey  through 
New  England  was  a  triumphal  procession.  At 
New  Haven  they  visited  the  grave  of  Dixwell  the 
Regicide.  A  significant  visit  that  was  to  the  tomb 
of  one  of  the  fifty-two,  who  said,  "Off  with  the 
head  of  Charles  Stuart.  He  is  not  fit  to  live,  and 
enslave  Englishmen."  Until  he  reached  New  York 

*  Adams's  Works,  i.  148.  "  We  have  not  men  fit  for  the  times. 
We  are  deficient  in  genius,  in  education,  in  travel,  in  fortune,  in 
everything.  I  feel  unutterable  anxiety.  God  grant  us  wisdom  and 
fortitude !  Should  the  opposition  be  suppressed,  should  this  coun- 
try submit,  what  infamy  and  ruin !  God  forbid !  Death,  in  any 
form,  is  less  terrible."  Also,  Works  ii.  338. 


174  JOHN    ADAMS. 

at  this  time,  Adams  had  never  been  out  of  New 
England. 

In  Congress  the  New  England  delegates  had  a 
very  difficult  part  to  perform.  They  were  regarded 
with  great  distrust.  First,  they  were  Puritan  peo- 
ple ;  second ,  they  were  thought  desirous  of  break- 
ing with  the  British  Government,  and  aiming  at 
Independence.  Virginia  alone  stood  with  New 
England.  All  the  other  States  looked  on  with 
suspicion,  especially  New  York  and  Pennsylvania. 
This  was  the  problem  :  To  have  New  England  ideas 
prevail  without  putting  forward  New  England  men. 
Samuel  Adams  was  the  most  far-sighted  and  revo- 
lutionary man  then  in  the  Nation.  None  surpassed 
him  in  the  great  art  of  organizing  men,  of  leading 
the  unwilling,  while  he  seemed  only  to  follow.  At 
first  the  two  Adamses  did  not  seem  to  have  much 
influence.  They  were  looked  on  with  great  suspi- 
cion. At  length  it  turned  out  that  they  put  their 
ideas  into  all  the  rest.  But,  at  the  beginning,  Vir- 
ginia was  nearly  as  far  advanced  as  New  England. 
Richard  Henry  Lee  stood  side  by  side  with  Samuel 
Adams.  "  The  grave,  stern  figure  "  of  George  Wash- 
ington was  not  far  off.  There  he  was,  at  the  second 
session,  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  symbolically 
clad  in  his  military  uniform,  a  sword  at  his  side,  the 
thoughtful  Colonel,  who  spoke  in  deeds,  not  words. 

John  Adams  continued  as  a  member  of  Congress 


JOHN    ADAMS.  175 

from  September,  1774,  till  November,  1777.  The 
first  session  lasted  but  eight  weeks  —  consulting, 
making  a  Declaration  of  Rights  and  Grievances,  and 
preparing  Petitions  and  Memorials  to  the  British 
Government  and  people.  On  the  10th  of  May  it 
assembled  again.  During  his  service  in  that  body 
Mr.  Adams  tried  to  induce  Congress  to  adopt  the 
Massachusetts  Army,  —  which  had  been  gathered 
after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  —  to  make  the  fight 
national,  and  to  put  that  gallant  son  of  Virginia, 
George  Washington,  at  its  head ;  thus  to  gain  that 
great  State  of  Virginia,  and  all  the  Southern  States, 
so  that  they  should  make  common  cause  with  New 
England ;  to  advise  the  individual  States  to  anni- 
hilate their  old  Provincial  Governments  and  de- 
pendence on  Great  Britain,  and  to  make  a  new 
Constitutional  Government  of  their  own ;  to  de- 
clare Independence ;  to  unite  the  States  into  one 
Confederation ;  to  make  alliances  with  Foreign  Na- 
tions, and  to  establish  a  Navy. 

It  was  a  .difficult  matter  to  accomplish  all  this,  but 
it  was  done  ;  partly  by  John  Adams's  ardent  vigor  ; 
partly  by  the  admirable  resource  and  persuasive  tal- 
ent of  Samuel  Adams,  so  ably  helped  by  Richard 
Henry  Lee,  Jefferson,  Patrick  Henry,  and  others ; 
partly  by  the  quiet  diligence  and  immense  intellect 
of  Dr.  Franklin.  But  at  this  day  it  is  impossible  to 
tell  in  detail  what  each  man  did.  Congress  sat  with 


176  JOHN    ADAMS. 

closed  doors.  The  journals  gave  nothing  but  re- 
ports, and  these  in  the  most  official  and  meagre 
form.  Mr.  Adams's  Diary,  his  own  letters,  and 
those  of  others,  help  to  eke  out  the  scanty  record. 
The  Declaration  of  Rights  and  Grievances,  Octo- 
ber 18,  1774,  was  one  of  the  most  important  docu- 
ments of  the  Revolutionary  Congress.  Mr.  Adams 
drafted  it,  and  was  the  author  of  its  most  impor- 
tant parts.  He  seems  to  have  had  something  to  do 
with  composing  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
A  copy  of  the  original  draft  is  still  extant  in  his 
handwriting,  and  in  England  another  copy  in  Frank- 
lin's, it  is  said.*  John  Adams  was  the  chief  orator 
in  defence  of  the  Declaration,  and  of  Independence 
itself  ("  the  Colossus  of  that  debate ") ,  but  no  ves- 
tige of  his  speech  remains.  He  drew  up  the  rules 
and  regulations  for  the  Navy,  the  foundation  of  the 
present  naval  code ;  also  he  drafted  the  Articles 
of  War.  We  must  thank  him  for  selecting  George 
Washington  to  be  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Army.f  Mr.  Hancock,  it  seems,  wanted  the  office, 
and  never  forgave  Adams  for  placing  Colonel  Wash- 
ington in  it.  But  afterwards  John  Adams,  like 
Samuel  Adams,  and  many  others,  had  at  times 
some  distrust  of  Washington.  It  was  not  to  be 
wondered  at ;  not  surprising  that  such  should  have 
been  the  case. 

*  Works,  i.  232.  f  Works,  i.  175,  245,  265;  ii.  415. 


JOHN     ADAMS.  177 

In  several  things  Adams  ran  before  the  mass  of 
the  leaders  in  Congress.  He  did  not  wish  the  vote 
to  be  by  States,  for  this  gave  to  Delaware  and  Rhode 
Island  as  much  power  as  to  Virginia  and  Massachu- 
setts. He  did  not  hope  much  good  from  the  short- 
sighted agreement  not  to  import  from  Great  Britain, 
and  not  to  export  to  her  shores.  He  saw  the  im- 
portance of  a  Navy,  perhaps  before  any  other  mem- 
ber of  Congress,  and  he  decidedly  favored  a  Military 
Academy. 

He  labored  hard  in  three  years  of  his  service.  He 
was  chairman  of  twenty-five  Committees,  and  served 
likewise  on  sixty-five  more.  This  does  not  include  a 
number  of  committees  as  to  which  the  names  of  the 
members  are  not  recorded  in  the  journals  of  Con- 
gress. For  a  long  time  he  was  chairman  of  the 
Board  of  War,  performing  the  work  of  the  Secre- 
tary of  War  under  the  Revolutionary  Government. 
Yet  he  was  never  a  recognized  leader  in  Congress. 
His  rapid,  impatient  mind  disdained  the  intermedi- 
ate steps  in  the  slow  process  of  attaining  great  ends. 
But  he  really  led  men,  the  course  of  events  greatly 
aiding  him.  Still,  in  the  march  of  Independence, 
he  never  shot  so  far  before  the  rest  as  his  deep- 
hearted  and  more  silent  kinsman,  Samuel  Adams, 
nor  had  he  such  insight  into  the  rights  of  the  people 
as  Jefferson,  nor  yet  had  he  such  confidence  in  them. 
Besides,  Adams  was  capricious,  and  in  the  most  criti- 
12 


178  JOHN    ADAMS. 

cal  period  of  the  Revolution,  while  chairman  of  the 
Board  of  War,  he  absented  himself  from  Congress 
nearly  four  months,  from  October  13,  1776,  to 
February  9,  1777  —  a  period  full  of  terrible  defeats, 
though  enlightened  by  the  brilliant  actions  at  Tren- 
ton and  Princeton.  He  was  not  conciliatory  in  word 
or  deed. 

He  left  Congress  on  the  llth  of  November,  1777, 
and  returned  home.  While  a  member  of  Congress, 
he  was  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  Selectmen  of  the 
town  of  Braintree,  and  successively  a  member  of  the 
General  Court  and  of  a  Council  of  his  native  State, 
and  was  appointed  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Massachusetts,  October,  28,  1775.*  He 
accepted  the  office  though  he  never  entered  on  its 
duties  or  received  any  salary.  He  wrote  an  admi- 
rable Proclamation  to  the  People  of  his  State,  full 
of  sound  principles  of  Government,  and  addressing 
itself  to  the  nobler  emotions  of  Humanity,  f  In  the 
newspapers  of  Boston  he  also  wrote  some  able  pa- 
pers in  defence  of  the  Eights  of  the  Colonists.  But 
the  most  valuable  document  he  wrote  in  this  period 
of  his  life  was  his  w  Thoughts  on  Government,"  pub- 
lished in  1776  —  a  work  which  seems  to  have  had 
much  influence  upon  the  Forms  of  Government 
which  the  Colonies  adopted. | 

*  Works,  iii.  23.  t  Works,  i.  191,  and  onward. 

J  Works,  iv.  183-209.  See  the  other  references  in  the  Index  at 
end  of  volume  x. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  179 


IV. 

MR.  ADAMS'S  CAREER  AS  A  POLITICIAN  AND  DIPLO- 
MATIST IN  EUROPE.     1778-1787. 

In  November,  1777,  while  Mr.  Adams,  a  member 
of  Congress,  but  absent  on  leave,  was  arguing  a 
cause  in  the  Admiralty  Court  at  Portsmouth,  New 
Hampshire,  he  was  told  by  a  friend  that  he 
(Mr.  Adams)  was  appointed  one  of  the  Commis- 
sioners to  France,  in  place  of  Silas  Deane,  whose 
conduct  forced  Congress  to  recall  him.  James 
Lovell,  one  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs, 
wrote  him,  w  We  want  one  man  of  inflexible  in- 
tegrity on  the  Embassy."*  To  accept  the  office 
was  to  risk  great  difficulty  and  danger.  The 
chance  of  capture  in  crossing  the  ocean,  and  of 
living  for  a  long  time  shut  up  in  the  Tower  as  a 
Rebel,  was  great.  The  payment  was  little  for  a 
poor  man  with  a  large  family.  But  it  opened  a 
wide  field  for  his  ambition,  and  what  was  still 
more  with  him,  Duty  said,  "Go,"  and  he  went.f 
He  left  home  13th  of  February,  1778,  and  reached 
Paris,  April  8.  But  the  Commercial  Treaty  and 
Alliance  between  France  and  America  had  been 
skilfully  made  before  he  reached  there.  He  found 
American  affairs  in  no  little  confusion,  and  a  great 

*  Works,  i.  275.  f  Works,  Hi.  89. 


180  JOHN    ADAMS. 

deal  of  quarrelling  among  the  agents  —  Deane, 
Franklin,  Izard,  and  the  two  Lees.  He  hastened 
to  bring  matters  to  better  order,  and  partly  suc- 
ceeded. A  new  disposition  of  diplomatic  offices 
was  made.  Franklin  became  sole  Minister  to 
France,  and  Adams,  thus  left  without  place  or 
duty,  soon  returned  home.  He  reached  Boston, 
August  2,  1779  ;  the  next  week  was  elected  a 
delegate  for  Braintree  to  the  Convention  presently 
to  assemble,  and  to  form  the  Constitution  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. It  met  at  Cambridge,  September  1, 
1779,  and  immediately  resolved  that  they  would 
proceed  "  to  establish  a  free  Republic,"  and  that  the 
principle  of  it  should  be,  "  The  Government  of  a 
People  by  fixed  laws  of  their  own  making."  A 
Committee  of  thirty-one  was  chosen  to  draft  a 
Constitution.  They  chose  a  sub-committee  of  five 
to  do  the  work,  and  these  five  delegated  it  to  Mr. 
Adams.  There  were  already  two  parties  in  the 
new  State  —  a  party  of  Property,  represented  by 
James  Bowdoin,  who  could  not  go  to  Congress 
because  he  had  great  riches ;  and  a  party  of  Per- 
sons, represented  by  Samuel  Adams,  who  had  done 
more  than  any  one  man  to  consummate  the  ideas 
of  the  New  England  leaders,  and  to  advance  the 
progress  of  Revolution.  John  Adams  stood  be- 
tween these  two  parties,  desiring  to  give  a  due 
share  both  to  money  and  to'  numbers.  He  drafted 


JOHN    ADAMS.  181 

the  first  Constitution  of  Massachusetts.  It  was  not 
greatly  altered  in  the  large  committee,  or  in  the 
Convention.  He  also  took  the  most  prominent  part 
ill  forming  the  Political  Institutions  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  so  he  influenced  the  forms  of  Govern- 
ment of  all  the  many  States  which  have  since  copied 
its  provisions.  I  think  this  was  one  of  the  most 
important  acts  of  his  life.* 

But  he  never  sat  in  the  Convention ;  for  before 
it  reassembled,  in  October,  he  had  been  appointed 
one  of  the  Ministers  to  treat  with  Great  Britain, 
and  to  negotiate,  first,  a  Treaty  of  Peace,  and,  sec- 
ond, a  Treaty  of  Commerce.  Attended  by  his  oldest 
son, — John  Quincy  Adams,  then  only  promising 
what  he  afterwards  so  successfully  performed,  —  he 
sailed  for  Europe,  November  13,  1779,  and  reached 
Paris  (vi&  Spain),  February  5,  1780.  He  had  a  dis- 
agreement with  Dr.  Franklin,  then  Minister  at  Paris, 
and  with  the  Comte  de  Vergennes,  the  actual  Chief 
of  the  French  Government  under  Louis  the  Six- 
teenth. He  could  not  proceed  to  England,  and 
Vergennes  advised  him  not  to  announce  the  fact  of 
his  approach  to  the  British  Court  till  a  more  favor- 
able opportunity  should  occur.  He  was  greatly  irri- 
tated at  this,  and  seems  to  have  disturbed  the  affairs 
that  he  was  sent  to  compose.  He  wrote  important 
articles  on  America,  and  had  them  published  in  the 

*  Works,  i.  284;  iv.  213-219. 


182  JOHN    ADAMS. 

semi-official  Journal  —  the  "Mercure  de  France." 
A  mutual"  animosity  between  Adams  and  Vergennes 
continued  during  all  his  residence  in  France,  not  well 
founded  on  either  side.* 

July  27,  1780,  he  went  to  Holland,  to  ascertain  if 
he  could  borrow  money  for  the  United  States.  His 
hopeful  mind  made  things  look  more  promising  than 
he  afterwards  found  them  to  be.  He  had  important 
articles  published  in  the  Dutch  journals,  giving  in- 
formation respecting  American  affairs,  artfully  get- 
ting some  of  them  first  published  in  London.  He 
wrote  a  work,  then  published  for  the  first  time,  but 
often  afterwards,  entitled,  "Twenty-six  Letters  upon 
interesting  Subjects  respecting  the  Revolution  of 
America."  f  They  were  admirably  suited  to  the 
time  and  place,  and  greatly  helped  the  cause  of 
America.  He  informed  the  Dutch  Government, 
January  1,  1781,$  of  his  appointment  as  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  to  their  Court,  and  presented  them 
a  memorial,  asking  to  be  recognized  as  such.  As 
they  were  slow  to  respond  to  his  claim,  he  appealed 
to  the  Dutch  people,  and  had  his  memorial  widely 
circulated  among  them.  Strange  as  it  may  seem, 
this  extraordinary  appeal  succeeded.  The  Indepen- 
dent Provinces,  one  by  one,  demanded  his  reception, 
and  on  the  19th  of  April,  1782,  the  authorities  voted 

*  Works,  i.  298,  312,  321,  334.  f  Works,\ii.  265. 

t  Works,  i.  333. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  183 

that  he  be  recognized  as  Minister  Plenipotentiary 
from  the  United  States  of  America.  The  Govern- 
ment at  first  was  hostile  to  him,  for  Holland  was 
under  English  influence,  and  Adams  frankly  ac- 
knowledged this  as  the  greatest  success  of  his  life. 
Soon  after  he  procured  a  loan  of  about  two  millions 
of  dollars,  and  subsequently  yet  others,  which  were 
of  the  greatest  service  at  a  time  when  the  United 
States  could  get  no  more  credits  from  France.* 
Still  further,  he  negotiated  a  treaty  of  Amity  and 
Commerce  between  the  United  States  and  Holland, 
October  7,  1782. f  In  the  mean  time,  July,  1781, 
at  Paris,  he  had  taken  part  in  the  negotiations  for 
Peace  with  Great  Britain,  under  the  mediation  of 
Austria  and  Russia,  but  it  all  came  to  nothing. 
After  finishing  his  admirable  successes  in  Holland, 
October  26,  1782,  he  is  again  at  Paris,  Avith  Franklin 
and  Jay,  to  negotiate  a  definitive  treaty  of  peace  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  It  was 
a  long  and  difficult  matter,  full  of  complication  and 
confusion.  Both  Franklin  and  Jay  had  great  tal- 
ents—  Franklin  a  genius  for  diplomacy,  furnished 
with  more  than  twenty  years  of  experience  at  Euro- 
pean Courts  during  times  of  the  greatest  trial.  But 
it  must  be  confessed  that  the  quick,  wide-seeing  in- 
telligence of  John  Adams  —  his  energy,  his  boldness, 
and  his  irresistible  will  —  were  of  great  service  in 

*  Works,  i.  340.  t  Works,  i.  350-352. 


184  JOHN    ADAMS. 

securing  the  Rights  of  America  in  that  negotiation. 
On  30th  November,  1782,  the  treaty  was  signed  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  the  French  Court.  The  French 
Government  had  been  so  treacherous,  that  the  Amer- 
ican Commissioners  departed  from  their  instructions 
from  Congress,  and  finished  the  treaty  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  Comte  de  Vergennes.  June  21, 
1783.  it  was  signed  by  the  authorities  of  France, 
England,  and  America,  and  Peace  was  definitively 
restored.*  Mr.  Adams  resigned  his  offices,  hoping  to 
return  home ;  but  Congress  appointed  him,  with 
Franklin  and  Jay,  Commissioner  to  negotiate  a 
Treaty  of  Commerce  with  Great  Britain. 

Exhausted  by  labor  and  racked  by  a  fever,  Adams 
went  to  England  in  a  private  capacity,  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  House  of  Lords  as  the  "  Friend  of  Lord 
Mansfield."  The  next  day  some  one  said  to  him, 
"How  short  a  time  since  I  heard  that  same  Lord 
Mansfield  say,  in  that  same  House  of  Lords,  '  My 
Lords,  if  you  do  not  kill  him  (Mr.  Adams),  he  will 
kill  you '  ?  "  Mr.  West,  the  American  painter,  said" 
this  "  scene  would  make  one  of  the  finest  paintings  in 
the  progress  of  American  Independence."  In  the 
winter,  he  hurried  over  to  Holland,  to  negotiate  a 
new  loan,  and  succeeded  in  the  midst  of  difficulties, 
caused  by  the  rashness  or  dishonesty  of  the  American 

*  Works,  i.  386-398. 


JOHN   ADAMS.  185 

Government  in  recklessly  overdrawing  their  credits 
on  Holland.* 

He  assisted  in  making  other  treaties  with  Sweden 
and  with  Prussia,  the  latter  being  the  celebrated  one, 
which  does  such  honor  to  Dr.  Franklin.  Adams  con- 
tinued to  live  in  the  neighborhood  of  Paris,  where  his 
wife  and  family  joined  him  in  the  summer  of  1784. 
Here  he  passed,  perhaps,  the  happiest  period  of  his 
life.  John  Quincy  Adams,  a  promising  lad  of  seven- 
teen, now  and  then  shows  himself  in  the  formal  let- 
ters of  his  father  and  mother.  But  halcyon  days  are 
lew.  February  25,  1785,  he  was  appointed  Envoy 
to  Great  Britain.  Vergeunes  said  to  him,  "It  is  a 
great  thing  to  be  an  ambassador  from  your  country 
to  the  country  you  sprang  from.  It  is  a  mark ! " 
The  Duke  of  Dorset  said,  "You  will  be  much  stared 
at."  In  May,  he  went  to  London  as  Minister.  He 
was  presented  to  the  King  in  his  closet ;  only  Lord 
Caermarthen  was  present.  Adams  made  the  three 
reverences,  and  said,  "I  think  myself  more  fortunate 
than  all  my  fellow-citizens,  in  having  the  distin- 
guished honor  to  be  the  first  to  stand  in  your  Majes- 
ty's royal  presence  in  a  diplomatic  character."  The 
King  said,  "  I  was  the  last  to  consent  to  separation, 
but  I  will  be  the  first  to  meet  the  friendship  of  the 
United  States  as  an  independent  power."  Both  were 

*  Works,  i.  413,  414. 


186  JOHN   ADAMS. 

greatly  moved,  the  King  the  most.  In  conversa- 
tion afterwards,  the  King  told  him  he  understood  he 
was  not  much  attached  to  the  manners  of  France. 
Adams  smartly  answered,  M  I  have  no  attachment  but 
to  my  country  ;  "  whereto  the  King  replied,  as  quick 
as  lightning,  "An  honest  man  will  never  have  any 
other  ! "  *  But  this  interview  did  not  prevent  the 
King  from  publicly  turning  his  back  on  the  American 
Commissioners,  Adams  and  Jefferson !  Whereupon 
all  respectability  turned  its  pliant  back. 

Adams's  condition  in  England  was  unhappy.  Amer- 
ica was  treated  as  rebellious,  and  despised  for  her 
weakness ;  shall  I  not  also  say,  for  the  dishonorable 
manner  in  which  the  Americans  refused  to  pay  their 
debts.  He  met  with  cold  and  formal  civility,  "  such 
as  only  the  English  know  how,  in  perfection,  to  make 
offensive."  "No  marked  offence,  but  supercilious 
indifference  !  "  No  treaty  of  Commerce  could  then 
be  made.  The  King  was  cold,  his  family  cold,  the 
courtiers  cold,  all  respectability  cold  :  only  a  few  Dis- 
senters and  Democrats  were  on  his  side.  The  British 
appointed  no  Minister  to  America.  Adams  resigned 
his  office,  and  came  home  in  1788.  But  before  he 
left  England,  he  published  an  important  work, — his 
"  Defence  of  the  American  Constitution,"  —  which 
had  a  good  deal  of  influence  throughout  the  United 
States. 

*  Works,  i.  419;  viii.  256. 


JOHN  ADAMS.  187 


V. 

MR.  ADAMS  IN  THE  EXECUTIVE  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES.     1787-1800. 

Mr.  Adams  left  America  in  the  dark  hours  of  1779. 
All  was  then  uncertain.  America  might  fail  in  con- 
tending with  her  gigantic  foe.  He  came  back  in 
a  cloudy  day  of  1788  ;  it  might  turn  out  to  be  a 
stormy  one.  For  though  the  foreign  foe  was  over- 
come, the  domestic  trouble  from  ourselves  was  by 
no  means  so  easily  disposed  of.  Property  and  per- 
sons were  less  safe  in  the  States  after  the  Peace,  than 
in  the  five  years  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. •  The  States  were  not  so  prosperous  as  the 
Colonies.  The  Provisional  Government  which  had 
carried  the  Country  through  the  Revolution  was  fall- 
ing to  pieces.  The  new  Federal  Government  was 
not  yet  established.  One  by  one  the  States,  led  by 
reluctant  Massachusetts,  tardily  gave  in  their  consent 
to  a  form  of  National  Government.  The  Federal 
Constitution  then  offered  to  the  People  of  America 
for  their  adoption  was  the  work  of  the  merchants  in 
the  seaports,  of  the  Southern  planters,  of  the  officers 
of  the  Revolution,  of  the  Government  officials,  of  the 
men  of  superior  education,  and  of  the  prosperous 
classes  in  general.  Shays'  rebellion  in  Massachu- 
setts frightened  men  who  had  the  most  intense  demo- 


188  JOHN  ADAMS. 

cratic  hostility  to  centralized  power.  So  some  of 
them  assented  to  the  New  Constitution.  Madison, 
Jefferson,  Hancock,  and  Samuel  Adams  were  types 
of  this  class.  But  many  were  hostile  to  it.  Had  it 
been  put  to  a  popular  vote  six  mouths  after  the  Con- 
vention adjourned,  not  a  State,  I  think,  had  adopted 
the  Constitution. 

Great  events  march  through  gates  which  turn  on 
little  hinges.  Upon  Mr.  Adams's  return,  the  Consti- 
tution was  adopted ;  a  new  Government  organized. 

The  great  officers  were  first  to  be  chosen,  Presi- 
dent and  Vice-President.  There  could  be  but  one 
candidate  for  the  highest  place.  Washington  had  all 
the  sixty-nine  Electoral  votes.  No  doubt  he  should 
be  the  first  man  in  the  Nation.  But  the  second 
would  be  a  long  way  behind  him.  There  were  ten 
other  competitors  in  the  field.  Mr.  Adams  had  thir- 
ty-four votes  ;  thirty-five  were  against  him.  He  was 
elected  Vice-President  by  a  minority  of  votes.  His 
most  conspicuous  rivals  were  Samuel  Adams  and 
John  Hancock.  But  Alexander  Hamilton  was  his 
chief  opponent,  and  worked  against  him  in  his  astute 
and  secret  way.  The  motives  of  Hamilton's  conduct 
at  this  election  are  not  yet  quite  apparent. 

When  John  Adams  took  his  oath  of  office,  21st 
April,  1789,  it  was  not  a  bright  sky  that  hung  over 
him.  He  was  not  a  member  of  the  Cabinet.  It  was 
his  office  to  preside  in  the  Senate.  That  consisted 


JOHN   ADAMS.  189 

of  twenty-two  members,  though  only  twenty  were 
usually  present.  When  that  body  was  equally  di- 
vided, which  happened  twenty  times  during  the  two 
years  of  the  first  Congress,  he  gave  the  casting  vote. 
It  was  always  then  in  favor  of  Washington's  Ad- 
ministration, and  the  measures  supported  by  the 
Federal  party.  He  took  sides  with  England,  and  not 
with  France.  But  in  the  dull  life  of  a  Vice-Presi- 
dent he  found  no  scope  for  his  special  talents,  which 
were  power  in  debate  and  firmness  in  execution. 
Eight  years  this  unhappy  Theseus  sat  in  the  chair  of 
the  Senate,  deciding  points  of  order,  and  now  and 
then  giving  a  casting  vote.  Silence,  calmness,  im- 
partiality, were  chiefly  required  for  that  office.  They 
were  not  his  shining  talents.  He  called  his  "the 
most  insignificant  office  that  ever  the  invention  of 
man  contrived,  or  his  imagination  conceived."  *  In 
a  period  of  great  excitement,  1789,  he  wrote  the 
"  Davila  "  papers,  once  read  with  intense  wrath,  and 
with  unlimited  delight,  now  dead,  cold,  neglected, 
and  forgotten.  Yet  these  writings  were  his  most  im- 
portant contributions  to  the  public  service  between 
1789  and  1797. 

He  disliked  two  men,  the  most  powerful  in  Wash- 
ington's Cabinet;  nay,  he  hated  them!  Jefferson, 
the  Democrat,  and  Hamilton,  the  Federalist.  But 
while  he  was  Vice-President,  he  secured  the  friendly 

*  Works,  i.  460. 


190  JOHN  ADAMS. 

regards  of  both  parties  in  the  Senate,  notwithstand- 
ing those  stormy  times. 

When  Washington  withdrew  from  public  office, 
Adams  was  the  only  man  deemed  by  the  Federal 
party  fit  to  be  elected  President.  But  some  of  the 
Federalists,  who  were  leading  men  in  their  party, 
thought  that  the  British  Government,  with  all  its 
complicated  establishments,  was  the  best  government 
that  there  was  in  the  world,  or  that  there  ever  would 
be.  These  men  did  not  trust  Mr.  Adams,  because 
his  more  transcendental  theories  of  government  dis- 
pleased them.  Hamilton,  his  old  enemy,  now  worked 
in  secret,  and  attempted  to  thrust  him  aside,  while 
his  great  and  more  magnanimous  opponent,  Jeffer- 
son, appeared  in  open  day  —  as  a  rival  rather  than 
as  a  foe.  Adams  had  seventy-one  votes,  Jefferson 
had  sixty-eight.  So  Adams  was  President  and  Jef- 
ferson Vice-Presideut.  Adams  was  much  chagrined 
at  his  meagre  majority,  only  one  vote  more  than  the 
bare  number  which  the  law  required.  He  called 
himself  a  "President  of  three  votes."  He  was  sworn 
into  the  office  on  the  4th  of  March,  1797.  Thirty-one 
years  before,  on  that  day,  he  entered  on  his  duty  as 
one  of  the  honorable  Selectmen  of  Braintree  !  There 
was'  now  a  less  pleasant  prospect  before  him.  The 
retirement  of  Washington  took  away  the  last  check 
which  had  curbed  the  frenzy  of  Federalists  and 
Democrats. 


JOHN   ADAMS.  191 

On  the  day  when  he  became  Vice-President,  and  so, 
as  chairman  of  the  Senate,  was  obliged  to  declare  his 
own  election  to  the  great  office,  his  wife  characteris- 
tically wrote  him  from  her  New  England  home,  — 

"  '  The  sun  is  dressed  in  brightest  beams, 
To  give  thy  honors  to  the  day.' 

"  My  thoughts  and  meditations  are  with  you,  and 
my  petitions  to  Heaven  are  that  *  the  things  which 
make  for  peace  may  not  be  hidden  from  your  eyes.' 
My  feelings  are  not  those  of  pride  or  ostentation 
upon  the  occasion.  They  are  solemnized  by  a  sense 
of  the  obligations,  the  important  trusts,  and  numer- 
ous duties  connected  with  it.  That  you  may  be 
enabled  to  discharge  them  with  honor  to  yourself, 
with  justice  and  impartiality  to  your  country,  and 
with  satisfaction  to  this  great  people,  shall  be  the 
daily  prayer  of  your  A.  A."  * 

His  position  was  exceedingly  difficult. 

I.  The  great  strife  between  Federalists  and  Demo- 
crats was  then  at  its  height,  while  at  the  same  time 
the  wars  in  Europe  roused  the  passions  of  all  Amer- 
icans, who  fiercely  took  sides  and  embraced  opposite 
opinions.  The  Democrats,  however,  were  to  triumph 
in  the  end.  Nothing  but  reverence  for  Washington 

*  Works,  i.  496. 


192  JOHN  ADAMS. 

sustained  the  Federal  party  during  the  first  four 
years,  under  the  new  Constitution.  But  Washington 
had  now  withdrawn,  and  to  weaken  yet  more  the 
Conservative  cause,  the  Federalists  had  not  entire 
confidence  in  Adams. 

II.  By  his  relation  to  his  party,  he  felt  bound  to 
accept  the  feeble  Cabinet  which  Washington  had  left 
in  power :  Pickering  and  Wolcott  from  New  Eng- 
land, McHenry  from  New  Jersey,  and  Charles  Lee 
from  Virginia.     They  had  no  hold  on  the  country. 
By  great  services  or  great  talent,  they  could  give 
Adams  no   moral   or  political  support.     They  were 
only  qualified  to  conduct  the  routine  of  office,  and  to 
superintend  official  work. 

III.  These   old    officials    felt    no    obligation    to 
Adams,  and  bore  no  allegiance  to  him.     Three  of 
them  were  Hamilton's  men,  by  him  selected  for  Gen- 
eral Washington,   who  had   a   misplaced   confidence 
in    Hamilton.      Adams's    Cabinet   originally  looked 
to  Hamilton  as  their  master  and   chief,  not  to  the 
actual  President.    Their  writings  prove  this.    Adams 
wished  to  be  President  of  the  Nation.     He  found  it 
impossible,  because  his  Cabinet  insisted  that  he  should 
be  President  only  of  the  Federal  Party. 

The  chief  acts  of  Adams's  administration  are  briefly 
told.  The  French,  in  the  fury  of  the  Revolution,  be- 
came hostile  to  America ;  treated  our  Ministers  with 
contempt,  ordering  them  out  of  their  territory,  plun- 


JOHN   ADAMS.  193 

deringour  ships,  and  through  their  agents  violating  the 
sovereignty  of  oi:r  soil.  There  was  danger  of  a  war 
with  France,  and  so  it  became  necessary  that  the  Na- 
tion should  be  pat  in  a  state  of  defence.  The  Ultra- 
Federalists  wanted  a  war  with  France,  and  to  com- 
promise their  diiferences  with  England.  But  the 
chief  Democrats  favored  France,  and  hated  England 
to  an  extraordinary  degree.  Adams,  who  was  now 
the  slave  of  a  party,  wished  to  act  purely  on  the  de- 
fensive. He  broke  with  his  Cabinet  on  the  question 
of  the  command  of  the  new  army.  All  were  agreed 
that  Washington  should  be  General-in-Chief.  The 
Cabinet  desired  that  Hamilton  should  be  second  in 
rank.  Such  was  the  ambitious  claim  of  Hamilton 
himself;  and  Washington  quietly  favored  it.  Adams 
wished  to  commission  Knox  or  Pinckuey.  After 
much  contention,  Adams  yielded  to  Washington,  but 
not  graciously. 

The  French  Court  had  rejected  the  American  Min- 
ister. A  most  respectable  commission,  Mr.  Marshall, 
Mr.  Pinckney,  and  Mr.  Gerry,  were  sent  out  to  set- 
tle affairs.  They,  too,  were  treated  with  equal  dis- 
dain. In  a  message  to  Congress,  21st  of  June,  1798, 
Mr.  Adams  said,  "  I  will  never  send  another  Minister 
to  France  without  assurance  that  he  will  be  received, 
respected,  and  honored  as  the  representative  of  a 
great,  free,  powerful,  and  independent  nation."* 

*  Works,  i.  519. 

13 


194  JOHN   ADAMS. 

War  seemed  unavoidable.  The  Nation  armed  itself, 
and  made  ready  for  fight.  The  Dutch  offered  to  me- 
diate.* The  French  agent  advised  Mr.  Murray,  our 
Minister  at  the  Hague,  that  if  the  Americans  should 
send  a  new  envoy,  he  would  be  "  received  as  the 
representative  of  a  great,  free,  powerful,  and  inde- 
pendent nation."  Should  Adams  refuse  the  offer? 
That  were  indeed  madness.  Should  he  consult  his 
Cabinet?  They  were  all  in  favor  of  war,  and  would 
betray  the  measure  to  other  Federalists.  They 
might,  and  probably  would,  defeat  the  peaceful 
policy  he  had  determined  to  pursue.  He  took  the 
responsibility  upon  himself,  and  on  the  18th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1799,  he  sent  a  message  to  the  Senate,  nomi- 
nating Mr.  William  Vans  Murray  Minister  to  France, 
at  the  same  time  transmitting  the  despatch  of  Talley- 
rand, promising  that  France  would  receive  an  envoy 
from  America.  "  Is  Mr.  Adams  mad  ? "  asked  a 
Federal  Senator  of  Mr.  Pickering.  The  Federalists 
were  indignant.  The  Senate  committee  on  the  nom- 
ination sought  an  interview ;  but  they  found  the 
President  as  inflexible  as  the  granite  of  his  own 
native  hills.  He  added  Mr.  Ellsworth  and  Patrick 
Henry  to  the  commission.  The  Senate  confirmed  the 
nominations,  but  as  Henry  declined,  George  Davie, 
of  North  Carolina,  was  put  in  his  place. 

*  The  French  Government  assumed  a  milder  tone.     They  wished 
for  reconciliation  with  America. 


JOHN  ADAMS.  195 

This  was  one  of  the  great  acts  of  his  life ;  no  public 
deed  cost  him  more  courage.  It  saved  the  nation  from 
a  war,  but  it  purchased  for  Adams  the  hatred  of  his 
party,  at  least  of  its  controlling  and  most  ambitious 
men.  Though  wisdom  may  ride  in  one  pannier,  the 
other  is  often  heavy  with  folly.  After  this  great 
deed,  on  March  10,  1799,  Adams  retired  to  his  home 
at  Quiucy  for  more  than  seven  months,*  abandoning 
the  Government  to  his  faithless  Cabinet ;  only  occa- 
sionally corresponding  with  his  Secretaries  upon  such 
matters  as  were  submitted  to  him.  He  had  after- 
wards much  cause  to  repent  that  he  had  not  during 
this  period  remained  at  the  seat  oL  Government, 
and  in  the  control  of  its  Executive  affairs. 

The  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  so  deservedly  hateful 
to  Americans,  were  the  measures  not  of  himself,  but 
of  his  party.  He  assented  to  them,  and  so  his  was 
the  blame ;  but  he  never  liked  them,  and  pardoned 
John  Fries,  the  first  man  ever  tried  for  treason 
against  the  United  States,  if  indeed  he  could  be  said 
to  have  been  tried  at  all.  This  again  brought  on 
Adams  the  wrath  of  his  Cabinet  and  of  the  leading 
men  of  his  party. 

Such,  at  last,  became  the  discrepancy  between  him 
and  his  Cabinet,  that  he  removed  the  chief  men  from 
office,  filling  their  places  with  others  of  a  different 

*  Works,  viii.  628,  et  seq. ;  also,  ix.  37 ;  Gibbs,  "  Administra- 
tions," ii.  248. 


196  JOHN    ADAMS. 

stamp.  He  settled  some  complicated  difficulties 
with  both  England  and  France.  But  his  party  was 
displeased  with  him.  Some  of  them  —  Hamilton  and 
others  —  sought  to  destroy  him. 

He  was  beaten  at  the  next  election.  Jefferson  was 
chosen  President  in  his  place.  This  was  the  great 
grief  and  sorrow  of  his  life.  He  took  what  ven- 
geance he  could  on  his  triumphant  rival  —  once  his 
intimate  friend.  Just  as  he  was  leaving  office  he  filled 
up  many  new  judicial  appointment?,  then  recently 
created  by  act  of  Congress.  These  were  called  the 
appointments  of  "the  Midnight  Jr.ciges,"  from  the 
commissions  of  some  of  them  having  been  made  at 
nine  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  the  3d  March,  1801, 
while,  as  it  was  then  considered,  his  Presidency  was 
to  cease  at  midnight  of  that  date.  On  the  4th 
March,  before  sunrise,  he  left  the  seat  of  Govern- 
ment, his  feelings  not  suffering  him  to  attend  the 
inauguration  of  his  Democratic  successor !  Private 
grief,  also,  for  the  recent  death  of  a  son,  lay  heavy 
on  his  heart,*  with  his  great  political  defeat. 

*  Works,  ix.  681. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  197 


VI. 

THE  EX-PRESIDENT  IN  PRIVATE  LIFE.      FROM 
MARCH,  1801,  TO  4ra  JULY,  1826. 

Crushed  with  shame,  and  filled  alike  with  grief 
and  indignation,  Mr.  Adams  went  home  to  his 
farm  at  Quincy,  passing  at  once  from  the  most  in- 
tense activity  of  mind  to  the  dull  existence  of  a 
country  gentleman  in  a  little  town.  On  the  last  year 
of  office  his  letters  came  to  him  by  thousands.  The 
next,  out  of  office,  there  were  hardly  a  hundred. 
His  franking  privilege  seemed  to  be  all  his  visible 
record  for  five  and  twenty  years  of  earnest  public 
toil.  He  who  so  proudly 

"  Once  trod  the  ways  of  glory, 
And  sounded  all  the  depths  and  shoals  of  honor," 

now  finds  all  men  desert  him  when  the  mantle  of 
Presidential  power  fell  off. 

"Love  ends  with  hope;  the  sinking  Statesman's  door 
Lets  in  the  crowd  of  worshippers  no  more." 

But  dear  old  Massachusetts  would  not  desert  her 
son,  faithful  and  yet  dishonored.  The  Legislature 
sent  him,  for  his  past  services,  their  thanks,  in  an 
address  sincere,  beautiful,  and  affectionate.  It  was 
a  noble  act  of  his  native  State,  which  he  had  done  so 
much  to  illustrate  and  to  protect.  It  touched  the 


198  JOHN    ADAMS. 

sad  old  man's  always  thankful  heart,  and  he  found 
the  final  applauses  of  his  State  "  more  grateful  than 
any  which  had  preceded  them."  The  farmers  and 
mechanics  of  the  town  of  Quincy  hoaored  his  next 
birthday,  cheering  him  with  words  of  endearment, 
where  words  of  consolation  might  not  have  availed. 

The  remaining  twenty-five  years  of  his  life  he  de- 
voted to  farming,  always  his  favorite  employment ; 
to  political  writing  upon  his  own  conduct,  or  upon 
the  topics  of  the  day ;  to  literature,  and  to  corre- 
sponding with  his  friends,  who  really  prized  him 
in  power  or  in  disgrace.  With  th^  exception  of 
his  letters, — historical,  literary,  and  philosophic, — 
his  writings  at  this  period  do  him  IK>  honor.  They 
are  marked  by  partisan  rage  and  by  personal  ha- 
tred. The  world  has  forgotten  them.  Let  us  not 
call  them  from  their  appropriate  tomb. 

His  wife  died  on  the  28th  of  October,  1818. 
Fifty- four  years  and  three  days  had  they  lived  to- 
gether, a  blameless  and  beautiful  wedlock,  blessed 
with  three  sons  and  a  daughter.  He  was  eighty- 
three,  and  ever  after  wore  a  tinge  of  unaffected  sad- 
ness. The  sprightly  humor  vanished  from  his  letters 
and  his  talk.  How  could  he  be  cheerful  when  the 
Sun  of  his  early  being  shone  on  him  only  from  an- 
other Home,  so  near  and  yet  so  far  and  separate  ! 

In  1820  Massachusetts  found  it  nredful  to  revise 
the  Constitution  which  he  had  chiefly  drafted  in 


JOHN    ADAMS.  199 

1779.  Eighty-five  years  old,  his  native  town  sent 
him  a  delegate  to  this  Convention,  as  they  had  done 
to  the  other  one,  forty  years  before.  He  was  chosen 
its  President,  —  a  fit  honor,  which  the  feeble  old  man 
as  fittingly  declined.  What  a  change  from  the  time 
when  it  seemed  radical  to  demand  that  writs,  title- 
deeds,  and  commissions  should  run  in  the  name 
of  the  State;  that  is,  of  the  People,  and  not  in  that 
of  the  King.  In  the  Convention  of  1820  Adams 
appeared  a  little  more  conservative  than  in  that  of 
1779.  The  man  at  eighty-five  is  more  timid  than 
at  five  and  forty.  But  in  one  thing  he  was  more 
venturesome,  younger,  and  more  progressive  than  his 
fellows.  He  demanded  perfect  religious  freedom,  not 
only  for  Christians,  but  for  non-Christians  and  anti- 
Christians.  All  men  should  be  equal  before  the  law. 
The  State  should  not  be  Christian,  but  Human,  as 
Jesus  himself  was.  Puritanic  bigotry  was  then  too 
strong  for  the  old  man.  The  time  came,  and  Mas- 
sachusetts did  what  he  had  wished,  thirty  or  forty 
years  afterwards. 

Able-bodied,  able-minded,  Mr.  Adams  gradually 
faded  away.  His  hearing  decayed,  his  eyes  failed 
him,  his  hands  were  tremulous ;  but  still  the  brave 
old  soul  held  on,  making  the  most  of  the  wreck  of 
life,  now  drifting  alone  to  the  Islands  of  the  Blessed. 
Independence  Day,  the  great  day  of  his  life,  drew 
near.  It  was  its  fiftieth  anniversary.  The  Nation 


200  JOHN    ADAMS. 

was  to  keep  its  solemn  Jubilee,  grateful  alike  to  God 
and  to  His  servants  here  below,  for  the  blessings  of 
the  smiling  and  happy  land.  A  few  days  before  the 
time,  the  town  orator  asked  him  for  a  "sentiment" 
.to  suit  the  approaching  occasion.  The  old  man,  in 
his  ninety-first  year,  infirm,  feeble,  and  mortally  sick 
in  his  bed,  answered,  "INDEPENDENCE  FOR- 
EVER !  "  The  day  came,  and  found  him  living,  but 
fast  losing  his  hold  upon  earth.  "  Thomas  Jefferson 
still  survives,"  said  the  old  man —  his  coadjutor  and 
his  rival,  yet  his  friend.  These  were  his  last  words. 
Soon  after,  while  the  land  rang  with  cannons  jubilant 
over  his  great  deed,  he  passed  onward,  and  ceased 
to  be  mortal.  Jefferson  had  gone  an  hour  or  two 
before.  How  fortunate  the  occasion  of  his  death ! 
His  son  was  then  the  President  of  this  mighty  Na- 
tion ;  and  on  its  fiftieth  birthday,  calmly,  quietly,  he 
shook  off  the  worn-out  body,  and,  following  his  senti- 
ment, went  forth  to  "  INDEPENDENCE  FOREVER  !  " 

II.  Look  next  at  his  character,  and  consider  its 
four  elements  —  the  Intellectual,  Moral,  Affectional, 
and  Religious. 

I.  Mr.  Adams  had  a  great  mind,  quick,  compre- 
hensive, analytical,  not  easily  satisfied  save  with  ulti- 
mate causes,  tenacious  also  of  its  treasures.  His 
memory  did  not  fail  until  he  was  old.  With  the 
exception  of  Dr.  Franklin,  I  think  of  no  American 


JOHN    ADAMS.  201 

politician  in  the  eighteenth  century  that  was  his  in- 
tellectual superior.  For  though  Hamilton  and  Jef- 
ferson, nay,  Jay  and  Madison  and  Marshall  sur- 
passed him  in  some  high  qualities,  yet  no  one  of 
them  seems  to  have  been  quite  his  equal  on  the 
whole.  He  was  eminent  in  all  the  three  depart- 
ments of  the  Intellect  —  the  Understanding,  the 
practical  power;  the  Imagination,  the  poetic  pow- 
er, and  the  Reason,  the  philosophic  power. 

First.  His  understanding  was  ample.  Though  he 
was  constitutionally  averse  to  regular,  severe,  and 
long-continued  attention,  he  yet  easily  mastered  what 
lay  before  him,  and  reproduced  it  fluently  when  oc- 
casion required.  He  gathered  a  great  amount  of 
worldly  knowledge,  for  he  was  a  sharp  observer  of 
human  affairs,  if  not  a  nice  one.  Yet  he  attended 
little  to  the  world  of  matter,  except  for  the  economic 
purposes  of  Agriculture,  or  the  enjoyment  of  its  visi- 
ble beauty.  It  is  only  when  he  is  stimulated  by  the 
great  mind  of  Franklin  that  he  gives  any  attention  to 
the  investigations  of  Science. 

At  the  age  of  forty  he  was  the  ablest  lawyer  in  New 
England,  perhaps  the  ablest  lawyer  in  America.  He 
was  the  most  learned  in  historic  legal  lore,  the  most 
profound  in  the  study  of  first  principles.  He  went  to 
the  fountains  of  English  Law,  and  did  not  disdain  to 
follow  the  stream  in  all  its  crooked  and  self-contra- 
dictory course.  He  had  a  more  complete  collection 


202  JOHN   ADAMS. 

of  law  books  than  any  man  in  New  England,  and  so 
both  puzzled  and  defeated  the  officers  of  the  Crown 
with  whom  he  contended.  He  was  exceedingly  well 
read,  for  that  time  and  place,  in  the  Roman  Law, 
the  Law  of  Nature,  and  the  Law  of  Nations ;  and 
also  well  versed  in  Politics  and  in  Morals.  He  had 
read  much  in  the  histories  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
and  had  some  acquaintance  with  a  few  of  their  great 
writers,  though  never  an  accomplished  classic  scholar. 
He  was  quite  familiar  with  the  practical  affairs  of 
New  England  life. 

His  first  opinion  was  often  faulty,  not  seldom  ut- 
terly wrong  ;  but  his  final  thought  was  commonly  deep 
and  just  respecting  the  true  nature  of  things.  Hence, 
in  spite  of  great  defects,  he  was  a  man  not  only  of 
instinctive  sagacity,  but  also  of  sound  judgment. 
In  respect  to  this  he  has  not  received  justice.  All 
the  great  acts  of  his  life, — the  defence  of  Captain 
Preston,  the  denial  that  the  British  Parliament  had 
any  right  by  English  law  to  rule  these  Colonies,  the 
appointment  of  Washington  as  General,  Coinmand- 
ing-in-Chief,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the 
sending  of  a  Commission  to  France  in  1798,  —  all 
these  things  indicate  the  soundest  of  human  judg- 
ment. But  he  lacked  method  in  his  intellectual  pro- 
cesses. He  had  not  the  genius  which  is  its  own 
method,  nor  yet  that  sober,  systematic  habit  of  work, 
which,  though  seemingly  slow,  is,  in  the  long  run,  so 


JOHN   ADAMS.  203 

swift  and  sure.  He  did  things  helter-skelter.  In 
his  administration  as  President  he  had  no  rule  for 
anything. 

Second.  He  had  a  good  fair  Imagination,  above 
the  average  of  educated  men.  Yet  his  Imagination 
was  not  equal  to  his  Understanding.  Besides,  it  had 
small  opportunity  for  early  culture,  or  even  for  acci- 
dental education  in  later  life.  He  had  more  fondness 
for  the  beauty  of  Nature,  and  even  of  Art,  than  I  find 
in  his  eminent  political  contemporaries.  He  was 
fond  of  music,  of  sculpture,  and  painting,  and  took 
delight  in  the  grand  Avorks  of  European  Architecture, 
which  so  astonish  an  American.  His  larger  works  — 
his  controversial  writings,  his  political  papers  —  are 
plain  to  dire  homeliness ;  but  his  letters  to  his  few 
intimates,  and  especially  to  his  wife,  are  charged  with 
wild  flowers  of  wit,  humor,  and  fancy,  which  spread 
a  cheering  light  on  the  grim  landscape  which  expands 
all  around. 

Third.  He  had  a  great  Reason,  though  its  culture 
was  greatly  defective,  and  its  method  capricious  and 
uncertain.  He  had  not  calmness  enough  to  be  a 
great  philosopher,  yet  always  looked  for  the  actual 
causes  of  things,  and  studied  carefully  their  modes 
of  operation.  This  philosophic,  metaphysical  ten- 
dency appears  in  most  of  his  deliberate  writings, 
which  always  relate  to  political  affairs.  He  is  bold 
in  his  abstract  speculation,  always  founding  his  work 


JOHN   ADAMS. 

on  the  ultimate  principles  of  Nature.  He  is  often 
profound  in  his  remarks.  Thus,  in  1765,  he  speaks 
of  n  Rights  derived  from  the  great  Legislator  of  the 
universe,  —  Rights  that  cannot  be  repealed  or  re- 
strained by  human  laws ;  they  are  antecedent  to  all 
earthly  government."*  "Rulers  are  no  more  than 
attorneys,  agents,  and  trustees  for  the  people ;  the 
people  have  a  right  to  revoke  the  authority  that  they 
themselves  have  delegated,  and  to  constitute  abler 
and  better  agents,  attorneys,  and  trustees.  The 
preservation  of  the  means  of  knowledge  among  the 
lowest  ranks  is  of  more  importance  to  the  public 
than  all  the  property  of  all  the  rich  men  in  the 
country."  | 

The  Declaration  of  Grievances,  which  he  wrote  in 
1774,  contains  many  profound  thoughts,  partly  his 
own,  partly  the  work  of  James  Otis  and  Samuel 
Adams.  His  "Thoughts  on  Government"!  is  the 
finest  specimen  of  his  political  writing.  As  it  should 
be,  his  "PLAN"  was  borrowed  from  existing  institu- 
tions ;  but  it  proves  a  careful  observation  of  their 
effects,  and  a  profound  investigation  of  the  causes  of 
political  welfare.  His  "  Defence  "  §  of  the  American 

/ 

*  Works,  iii.  449. 

t  Works,  iii.  457.  On  the  Canon  and  Feudal  Laws.  A  mere  frag- 
ment, written  by  him  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  irregular  and  insuffi- 
cient, but  of  great  value  at  the  time,  1765,  not  unprofitable  now. 

I  Works,  iv.  189.  §  Works,  iv.  and  v. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  205 

Constitutions  is  less  valuable,  and  contains  many  hasty 
generalizations,  which  experience  has  not  confirmed, 
nor  did  history  warrant  them.  He  appeals  from  Hu- 
man History  to  H  uinan  Nature  ;  from  the  Actual  of 
Establishment  to  the  Ideal  Right  of  Humanity. 

Adams  certainly  had  not  a  mind  of  the  highest 
class.  If  he  were  the  first  American  of  that  age 
after  Franklin,  he  was  second  to  him  by  a  long  in- 
terval, and  several  competitors  stood  nearly  as  high 
as  he  did.  Unlike  Franklin  and  Washington,  he  was 
not  a  man  of  well-balanced  intellect  or  of  self-con- 
trolled temper. 

Thus  constituted,  he  was  an  Inventor;  but  he  was 
not  a  great  Inventor.  He  was  often  in  advance 
of  his  times,  especially  in  his  Plan  of  Government, 
his  scheme  of  Universal  Toleration,  making  a  Chris- 
tian Humanity  to  constitute  all  men  as  equals  before 
the  State.  His  Christian  Commonwealth,  like  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  was  to  grant  no  privilege  to 
Christians,  but  to  secure  justice  to  all  Mankind. 

He  ran  before  the  foremost  of  his  time  in  seeing 
the  Nation's  necessity  of  a  Navy  and  of  a  Military 
Academy.  He  required  them  in  1779,  he  founded 
them  in  1799. 

As  an  Organizer,  he  could  deal  with  political 
ideas,  constructing  them  into  a  Constitution.  He 
could  plan  a  Government  with  masterly  skill.  But 


206  JOHN   ADAMS. 

he  had  only  the  smallest  talent  for  organizing  men. 
He  was  always  a  lawyer,  who  could  shape  his  prin- 
ciples into  a  measure.  Here  he  had  few  equals  ;  but 
he  was  never  a  practical  politician,  who  could  organ- 
ize men  about  his  idea,  so  that  they  should  defend  his 
measures  and  adopt  his  thoughts  and  conclusions. 
Thus  many  ran  before  him,  and  hence  came  the  great 
failure  of  his  political  life.  He  could  construct  In- 
stitutions, but  he  could  not  govern  men. 

He  was  not  a  good  Administrator,  except  in  his 
own  private  affairs,  where,  perhaps,  his  wife  was  the 
presiding  spirit.  He  had  no  system,  but  was  gov- 
erned by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  moment.*  In  the 
most  important  matter  he  went  to  work  fluently, 
often  with  haste  and  without  good  heed.  In  diploma- 
cy, at  Paris,  1780,  he  ran  violently  down  steep  places, 
careless  whom  he  ran  over  or  what  he  ran  against. 
In  1798  he  took  the  lead  in  appointing  Washington 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  without  consult- 
ing him  beforehand,f  and  quarrelled  with  him  about 
the  appointment  of  officers.  J 

He  acted  often  from  personal  whim  and  caprice, 
and  in  a  time  of  great  political  crisis,  in  1799,  left 

*  Jefferson's  Writings,  ix.  186. 

f  Sparks's  Washington,  xi.  304.  See,  also,  Washington's  letter  to 
McHenry.  xi.  574.  He  never  corresponded  with  Washington  after 
April  5,  1798,  xi.  198. 

J  Sparks's  Washington,  xi.  419,  420. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  207 

the  seat  of  Government,  and  went  home  to  Quincy 
to  stay  for  many  months. 

Hence  he  was  not  a  skilful  diplomatist  abroad. 
When  Vice-President,  Washington  doubted  if  he  was 
fit  for  a  foreign  mission.*  His  administration  as 
President  was  not  peaceful  or  prosperous.  He  could 
not  administer  the  Nation  well,  nor  even  manage  his 
own  party.  Yet  it  must  be  confessed  that  he  won  a 
great  diplomatic  victory  in  Holland,  and  was  called  the 
"  Washington  of  Negotiation,"  and,  while  President, 
successfully  settled  difficult  questions  with  France 
and  England.  I  give  the  rule  and  the  exceptions. 

II.  Mr.  Adams  had  great  moral  virtues,  also  great 
vices.  Able-bodied,  compact,  and  vigorous,  though 
not  always  healthy,  he  had  abundant  physical  cour- 
age. In  scholarly  men  this  is  a  great  and  a  rare 
virtue.  He  says  he  meant  to  have  been  a  soldier,  and 
always  had  doubted  whether  he  should  have  been  a 
hero  or  a  coward.  He  needed  not  to  doubt.  No 
drop  of  coward  blood  ran  in  his  impetuous  veins.  He 
inherited  "spunk,"  and  transmitted  it  too. 

He  had  moral  courage  in  the  heroic  degree.  He 
could  not  only  face  the  bullets  of  a  British  man-of- 
War,  but  face  the  Royal  Government  of  Massachu- 
setts in  1765,  all  through  the  ante-revolutionary 
period.  Nay,  he  could  front  the  wrath  of  his  own 

*  Jefferson's  Works,  ix.  206. 


208  JOHN    ADAMS. 

friends  and  the  whole  town,  and  defend  Captain 
Preston  in  1770.  He  could  face  the  indignation  of 
the  leaders  of  the  Federal  party  in  1799.  Let  him 
be  sure  he  was  right,  and  he  feared  nothing  but  to 
be  false  to  Eight.  When  the  Massachusetts  Judges 
went  under  the  golden  chain  of  Britain  in  1773,  and 
the  Government  held  it  low  to  make  them  stoop 
the  more  lowly ;  when  the  precedent-loving  lawyers 
knew  not  what  to  do,  Adams  said,  "Impeach  the 
Judges ; r>  and  the  Court  did  no  more  business.* 
Conscious  of  great  integrity  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
take  great  risks,  and  also  to  accept  great  responsi- 
bility. 

He  says  he  had  four  great  trials  in  his  life. 

The  first  came  from  Captain  Preston's  case  in 
1770.  The  popular  voice  said,  "  Hang  the  authors 
of  the  Boston  Massacre  !  "  Adams's  conscience  said* 
w  Defend  them  ;  give  them  a  free  trial !  "  His  friends 
said,  "If  you  save  them,  you  ruin  yourself !"  But 
Adams  was  John  Adams,  and  he  did  his  duty,  saving 
the  lives  of  the  soldiers,  and  the  virtuous  reputation 
of  Massachusetts. 

On  the  24th  July,  1775,  he  wrote  two  private  let- 
ters for  Congress,  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
British,  and  were  published.  In  one  of  these  he 
recommends  Disunion,  Independence,  concentration 
of  the  Legislative,  Executive,  and  Judicial  powers 

*  Works,  x.  237,  et  al. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  209 

of  the  whole  Continent,  a  Navy,  and  seizure  of  the 
Tories.  Hateful  doctrines  these  to  all  but  a  minor- 
ity of  the  Congress.  Besides,  he  spoke  of  John  Dick- 
inson of  Pennsylvania,  then  a  chief  political  favorite, 
in  terms  of  exquisite  contempt.  The  doubtful  mem- 
bers of  Congress  looked  at  him  with  wrath.  Mr. 
Dickinson  passed  him  without  recognition  in  the 
street.  He  bore  it  patiently,  and  waited  for  his 
time.* 

In  1781,  while  minister  to  Holland,  the  Gov- 
ernment delayed  to  acknowledge  him  as  Minister. 
Others  said,  "  Wait."  He  appealed  to  the  Dutch 
people,  who  compelled  their  High  Mightinesses  to 
receive  him,  and  so  this  bold  and  unprecedented 
diplomacy  f  turned  out  to  be  a  great  success. 

In  1798,  his  Cabinet,  the  Federal  party,  and 
even  Washington,  said,  "  Send  no  Minister  to 
France."  Adams  took  the  responsibility  on  him- 
self; did  not  consult  his  hostile  and  treacherous 
Cabinet,  but  sent  the  Minister,  and  so  broke  the 
cloud  of  war  which  hung  dark  and  fearful  over 
the  land  and  sea.}  These  four  great  trials  —  he 
came  out  of  them  all,  clean  and  pure  as  he  went  in. 

He  was  a  conscientious  man,  and  sought  counsel 
of  that  still  small  voice,  which  tells  the  law  of  the 
mind,  the  Eternal  Right,  to  whoso  listens.  He 

*  Works,  i.  178,  183.  t  Works,  i.  349,  et  al. 

J  Works,  i.  536-643. 

14 


210  JOHN    ADAMS. 

could  not  understand  that  the  King's  will  was  to 
govern  the  conscience  of  a  subject.*  He  had  cleat 
perception  of  justice,  was  veracious  and  outspoken, 
had  an  utter  hatred  of  lies,  of  dissembling,  and  gen- 
erally of  hypocrisy  in  any  form.  He  was  terribly 
open,  earnest,  and  direct,  and  could  not  keep  his 
mouth  shut.  He  knew  this.  Once  he,  went  with 
others  to  see  the  picture  of  Washington  in  Faneuil 
Hall.  Some  one  remarked  on  the  firm  mouth,  and 
said,  "  It  looks  as  if  he  could  keep  it  shut."  "  So 
he  did,"  said  Adams ;  but  tapping  with  his  cane  his 
own  bust,  which  the  town  of  Boston  had  also  placed 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  he  added,  "that  d — d  fool  never 
could."  He  hated  all  stratagems  and  tricks,  and 
growled  about  the  slow,  noiseless  way  in  which  old, 
experienced  Dr.  Franklin  threw  out  his  lines,  and 
drew  in  the  treasures  of  the  treacherous  political 
deep.  "Diplomacy  is  a  silent  art,"  and  Adams  was 
a  talker.  A  man  of  deepest  integrity,  he  could  not 
dissemble,  but  wore  his  heart  upon  his  sleeve.  He 
had  no  reserve.  His  early  rule  was  never  to  de- 
ceive the  People,  nor  to  conceal  from  them  any 
truth  essential  to  their  welfare. f  He  observed  this 
as  a  maxim  all  his  life.  He  had  great  moral  deli- 
cacy, and,  being  President,  doubted  if  he  ought  to 
retain  his  son  John  Quincy  Adams  in  the  diplomatic 
office  to  which  Washington  had  appointed  him.  To 

*  Works,  iii.  223.  t  Works,  ii.  214. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  211 

his  letter,  asking  advice  upon  this,  Washington  re- 
plied, "  It  is  right  for  you  to  keep  him  there,  not  to 
put  him  there."*  Yet  Adams  afterwards  made  his 
wife's  nephew,  William  Cranch,  Judge  of  the  United 
States  District  Court  at  Washington,  and  his  son-in- 
law,  Colonel  Smith,  he  put  in  a  high  office. f  All 
our  Presidents,  except  Washington  and  John  Quincy 
Adams,  have  put  their  relations  in  office.  It  is  a 
dangerous  and  unjust  practice. 

John  Adams  had  a  strong  temptation  to  the  in- 
dulgence of  animal  passions,  but  he  kept  all  the  ap- 
petites in  their  place ;  and  in  his  old  age  could 
proudly  write,  "  No  virgin  or  matron  ever  had  cause 
to  blush  at  the  sight  of  me,  or  to  regret  her  acquaint- 
ance with  me.  No  father,  brother,  son,  or  friend 
ever  had  cause  of  grief  or  resentment  for  any  inter- 
course between  me  and  any  daughter,  sister,  mother, 
or  any  other  relation  of  the  female  sex."  |  Here  he 
was  greatly  the  superior  of  Franklin,  Jefferson,  Ham- 
ilton, nay,  of  Washington  himself. 

These  are  great  virtues.  Few  politicians  can  boast 
such.  But  he  was  ill-tempered,  "  sudden  and  quick 

*  Works,  viii.  529.  In  this  letter  Washington  expresses  a  strong 
hope  that  "you  will  not  withhold  merited  promotion  from  Mr. 
John  [Quincy]  Adams  because  he  is  your  son ;  "  and  also  says, 
"  I  give  it  as  my  decided  opinion  that  Mr.  Adams  is  the  most  valu- 
able public  character  we  have  abroad,"  and  so  on  in  the  same  strain. 

t  Works,  ix.  63.  J  Works,  ii.  145. 


212  JOHN    ADAMS. 

in  quarrel,"  and  madly  impetuous.  He  was  not  a 
good  judge  of  character.  He  often  suspected  the 
noblest  of  men,  and  put  credulous  faith  in  mean  and 
deceitful  persons,  and  so  was  unjust  while  he  meant 
it  not.  Intensely  ambitious  of  place  and  of  power, 
he  yet  sought  always  to  rule  -his  desire  by  his  duty. 
But  if  he  sought  only  excellent  things,  the  spirit  of 
the  search  was  not  in  all  cases  commendable.  The 
motive  was  often  selfish,  the  method  wrong,  and  the 
manner  harsh.  His  temper  was  not  magnanimous  or 
noble.  He  was  suspicious,  and  jealous,  and  envious 
of  men  before  him  in  social  rank,  or  above  him  in 
power.  He  attributes  mean  motives  to  all  men,  often 
to  the  noblest  in  the  land.  His  early  writings  prove 
this  abundantly,  and  his  later  also.  He  was  envious 
of  Dr.  Franklin  in  France ;  and  the  frog  stretched 
himself  to  resemble  the  ox.  He  hated  a  superior. 

I  think  he  rarely  forgave  a  foe,  or  one  he  fancied 
such.  Keverence  he  had  for  God ;  little  for  noblest 
men.  Witness  his  harsh  words  about  Samuel  Adams 
and  John  Hancock ;  his  unrelenting  enmity  to  Ham- 
ilton and  Pickering. 

But  his  wrath  against  Dr.  Franklin  was  of  the 
most  needless,  wanton,  and  malignant  character.  I 
think  he  bore  it  with  him  to  his  grave.  Sound- 
headed  by  nature  as  he  was,  he  was  constitutionally 
a  fighting  man.  This  appears  in  his  Diary,  and  in 
the  newspaper  articles  written  by  him  before  the 


JOHN    ADAMS.  213 

Revolution  and  after  it.  It  also  became  manifest 
when  he  was  Vice-President,  and  in  the  higher  office 
of  President,  and  it  may  be  observed  in  the  Autobi- 
ography which  he  wrote  in  his  old  age.  His  letters 
.to  Mr.  Cunningham,  in  1804-1809,  seem  to  me  not 
less  than  wicked.  He  was  intensely  violent  in  his 
wrath,  which  a  trifle  could  rouse,  and  nothing  could 
stay.  He  was  indiscriminate  as  to  the  object  of  it. 
It  might  be  a  member  of  his  Cabinet  who  opposed  a 
measure,  or  a  butcher  in  Quincy  who  brought  in  his 
bill.  But  shortly  after  the  passion  of  his  wrath  he 
cooled  down,  and  did  with  delight  what  he  had  at 
first  refused  with  vehement  anger.* 

Impatient  of  process,  and  greedy  of  result,  he  was 
most  intensely  desirous  of  honor  and  applause.  His 
early  Diary  is  full  of  examples ;  so,  too,  is  the  later. 

*  When  he  was  President  of  the  United  States,  Congress  required 
him  to  negotiate  a  loan  for  the  support  of  the  American  Army.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Wolcott,  was  decidedly  of  opinion 
that  in  the  then  condition  of  the  money  market  he  ought  not  to 
publish  proposals  for  the  loan  offering  to  subscribers  a  less  rate  of 
interest  than  eight  per  cent.  As  to  this  state  of  things,  he  writes 
many  years  afterwards,  in  1815,  "  My  patience,  which  had  been  put 
to  so  many  severe  trials  by  enemies  and  friends,  was  quite  exhaust- 
ed, and  I  broke  out,  '  This  d — d  army  will  be  the  ruin  of  this 
country.  If  it  must  be  so,  it  must.  I  cannot  help  it.  Issue  your 
proposals  as  you  please.'  I  ask  pardon  for  that  peevish  and  vulgar 
expression ;  but  for  the  truth,  in  substance  and  essence,  of  this  narra- 
tion, I  appeal  to  Mr.  Wolcott  himself.  I  know  that  Oliver  Wolcott 
dare  not  lie."  Works,  x.  130. 


214  JOHN  ADAMS. 

At  Paris,  in  1782,  he  was  highly  complimented  for 
the  success  of  his  negotiation  in  Holland.  He  writes 
in  his  journal,  "A  few  of  these  compliments  would 
kill  Franklin,  if  they  should  come  to  his  ears."  *  He 
reads  all  the  complimentary  nothings  which  the 
French  said  to  him.  Yet,  great  as  his  vanity  was, 
I  think  it  never  bent  him  aside  from  his  duty.  Lov- 
ing the  praise  of  man,  he  never  once  stooped  for  it ; 
never  hesitated  to  do  the  most  unpopular  act  if  sure 
it  was  right ;  never  bowed  that  great,  manly  head  to  es- 
cape abuse  which  his  imprudence  or  his  temper  brought 
upon  him.  He  was  excessively  arrogant.  "  I  always 
consider  the  whole  Nation  as  my  children,"  he  writes 
in  1809  ;  j-  "but  they  have  almost  all  been  undutiful  to 
me.  You  two  gentlemen,"  Mr.  Wright  and  Mr.  Ly- 
man,  "are  almost  the  only  ones,  out  of  my  own  house, 
who  have  expressed  a  filial  affection  for  John  Adams." 
He  claims  that  he  is  the  author  of  the  chief  things 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  "  Jefferson  has 
acquired  such  glory  by  his  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, in  1776,  that,  I  think,  I  may  boast  of  my 
declaration  of  independence  in  1755,  twenty-one 
years  older  than  his."  J  He  refers  to  a  letter  of  his 
written  when  he  was  a  boy  of  twenty  at  Worcester. 
Some  one  ascribed  to  Samuel  Adams  "  the  honor  of 
the  first  idea  and  project  of  Independence."  John 
Adams  claims  that  it  was  his  thunder,  let  off  when 

*  Works,  iii.  309.  f  «•  615.  J  ix.  592. 


JOHN   ADAMS.  215 

he  was  twenty  years  old.  "In  1755,  when  my  letter 
to  Dr.  Webb  was  written,  I  had  never  seen  the  face 
of  Samuel  Adams.*  I  heartily  wished  the  two  coun- 
tries were  separated  forever."  f  "  The  Declaration 
of  Independence  of  4th  of  July,  1776,  contained 
nothing  but  the  Boston  Declaration  of  1772,  and  the 
Congressional  Declaration  of  1774.  Such  are  the 
caprices  of  fortune  !  The  Declaration  of  Rights  [of 
1774]  was  drawn  by  the  little  John  Adams.  The 
mighty  Jefferson,  by  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence of  4th  July,  1776,  carried  away  the  glory 
of  the  great  and  the  little."  } 

Claiming  so  much  for  himself,  he  abused  his  rivals. 
Samuel  Adams  and  John  Hancock  are  the  "  Stone 
House  faction,  and  will  be  sure  of  all  the  loaves  and 
fishes  in  the  National  Government,  and  the  State 
Government  as  they  hope."  §  He  speaks  sneeringly 
of  Hancock.  "Yes,  this  is  the  place  where  the  great 
Governor  Hancock  was  born.  John  Hancock  !  a  man 
without  head  and  without  heart;  the  mere  shadow 
of  a  man ;  and  yet  a  Governor  of  old  Massachu- 
setts ! "  ||  He  did  not  like  to  hear  the  praises  of 
Washington.  One  day  he  dined  with  a  company  in 
a  neighboring  town.  After  dinner,  when  he  rose  to 

*  Works,  ix.  692.  t  Works,  ix,  612. 

J  Works,  vi.  278.  §  Works,  viii.  508. 

||  Cunningham  Correspondence,  p.  215.     See  his  admirable  ac- 
count of  Hancock,  Works,  x.  259. 


216  JOHN   ADAMS. 

depart,  a  clergyman  attended  him  to  the  hall,  and 
offered  to  wait  upon  him  with  his  cloak,  and  said, 
"  Sir,  the  country  owes  so  much  to  Washington  and 
you."  Mr.  Adams  snapped  him  up.  "  Washington 
and  me  I  Do  not  let  me  hear  you  say  that  again  I  Sir, 
Washington  was  a  dolt."  It  was  a  momentary  spasm 
of  envy  and  of  wrath,  coming  from  "  that  weak  hu- 
mor that  his  mother,"  or  some  one  else,  "gave  him." 
At  other  times  he  did  justice  to  Washington, 
though  always  a  little  coldly,  for  neither  liked  the 
other.  He  was  often  unjust  to  Samuel  Adams,  and 
even  to  John  Hancock,  whose  faults  were  certainly 
offensive,  though  his  virtues  were  exceedingly  great. 
Constitutionally,  Adams  was  a  grumbler.  He 
hated  things  present,  and  longed  for  the  absent  or 
the  past.  Thus;  while  a  schoolmaster  at  Worcester, 
he  often  complains  of  his  irksome  task  ;  but  at  Brain- 
tree,  studying  law,  he  sighs  for  the  mental  activity 
which  school-keeping  forced  out  of  him.  His  life  as 
a  country  lawyer,  riding  his  circuit,  pleases  him  no 
more.  It  is  a  life  of  "  here  and  there  and  anywhere," 
and  will  lead  him  to  neither  fame,  fortune,  power, 
nor  to  the  service  of  his  friends,  clients,  or  country.* 
In  1765,  in  the  Stamp  Act  times,  the  courts  were 
shut.  Adams  writes  in  his  journal,  "Thirty  years 
of  my  life  are  passed  in  preparation  for  business.  I 
have  had  poverty  to  struggle  with,  envy  and  jealousy 

*  Works,!.  84;  ii.  208. 


JOHN   ADAMS.  217 

and  malice  of  enemies  to  encounter ;  no  friends,  or 
but  few,  to  assist  me,  so  that  I  have  groped  in  dark 
obscurity  till  of  late,  and  had  but  just  become  known, 
and  gained  a  small  degree  of  reputation,  when  this 
execrable  project  (the  Stamp  Act)  was  set  on  foot  for 
my  ruin,  as  well  as  that  of  America  in  general,  and  of 
Great  Britain."  December  18,  1765.*  The  very  next 
day  he  finds  that  Boston  has  chosen  him  for  her  Attor- 
ney, to  appear  before  the  Council  on  this  very  matter 
of  closing  the  Courts  !  What  he  thought  was  his  ruin 
became  the  highway  to  fortune  and  to  fame.  By  and 
by  he  complains  of  his  public  life,  that  he  has  done  so 
much  for  the  people.  "  I  reap  nothing  but  insult,  ridi- 
cule, and  contempt  for  it,  even  from  many  of  the  peo- 
ple themselves."  "I  have  stood  by  the  people  much 
longer  than  they  would  stand  by  themselves.  But  I 
have  learned  wisdom  by  experience.  I  shall  certainly 
become  more  retired  and  cautious.  I  shall  certainly 
mind  my  own  farm  and  my  own  office."  f  But  here 
he  complains  he  is  out  of  politics.  "I  believe  there 
is  no  man  in  so  curious  a  situation  as  I  am.  I  am, 
for  what  I  can  see,  quite  left  alone  in  the  world."  J 

He  travels  for  his  health  along  the  beautiful  valley 
of  the  Connecticut  River,  but  gets  "weary  of  this 
idle,  romantic  jaunt."  "  I  believe  it  would  have  been 
as  well  to  have  staid  in  my  own  country,  and  amused 
myself  with  my  farm,  and  rode  to  Boston  every  day. 

*  Works,  i.  76.      f  Works,  ii.  260.      J  Works,  ii.  279. 


218  JOHN   ADAMS. 

I  shall  not  certainly  take  such  a  ramble  again  merely 
for  rny  health."  "  I  want  to  see  my  wife,  my  chil- 
dren, my  farm,  my  horse,  oxen,  cows,  walls,  fences, 
workmen,  office,  books,  and  clerks.  I  want  to  hear 
the  news  and  politics  of  the  day.  But  here  I  am  at 
Bissell's,  in  Windsor,  hearing  my  landlord  read  a 
chapter  in  the  kitchen,  and  go  to  prayers  with  his 
family  in  the  genuine  tone  of  a  Puritan."  *  When  in 
Congress  he  wants  to  resign.  Ten  days  before  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  he  writes,  "When  a 
few  mighty  matters  are  accomplished  here,  I  retreat, 
like  Cincinnatus,  to  my  plough,  and,  like  Sir  Wil- 
liam Temple,  to  my  garden,  and  farewell  politics ! 
I  am  wearied  to  death.  Some  of  you  younger  folks 
must  take  your  trick,  and  let  me  go  to  sleep."  (He 
is  then  about  forty-one.)  "My  children  will  scarcely 
thank  me  for  neglecting  their  education  and  interest 
so  long.  They  will  be  worse  off  than  ordinary  beg- 
gars, because  I  shall  teach  them,  as  a  first  principle, 
not  to  beg.  Pride  and  want,  though  they  may  be  ac- 
companied with  liberty,  or  at  least  may  live  under  a 
free  Constitution,  are  not  a  very  pleasant  mixture  nor 
a  very  desirable  legacy,  yet  this  is  all  that  I  shall  leave 
them."  f  In  the  grand  letter  which  tells  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence  itself,  while  his  own  mag- 
nificent defence  of  it  is  still  echoing  in  his  ears, 

*  Works,  ii.  272.  f  Works,  ix.  411. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  219 

and  composing  music  at  the  end  of  his  pen,  he  tells 
his  wife  he  cannot  accept  the  office  of  Chief  Justice 
of  Massachusetts.  He  has  not  "  fortune  enough  to 
support  my  family,  and  what  is  of  more  importance, 
to  support  the  dignity  of  that  exalted  station.  It  is 
too  high  and  lifted  up  for  me,  who  delight  in  nothing 
so  much  as  retreat,  solitude,  silence,  and  obscurity."* 
"  In  private  life  no  one  has  a  right  to  censure  me  for 
following  my  own  inclinations  in  retirement,  sim- 
plicity, and  frugality.  In  public  life  every  man  has 
a  right  to  remark  as  he  pleases.  At  least  he  thinks 
so."  "  I  had  rather  build  stone  walls  on  Penn's  Hill 
(part  of  his  farm) ,  than  be  the  first  Prince  in  Europe, 
or  the  first  General,  or  the  first  Senator  in  America." 
So  he  wrote  on  the  18th  of  August,  1776.f  When 
Vice-President,  he  does  not  like  the  office ;  it  is  the 
most  insignificant  in  the  world.  "  I  wish  very  hearti- 
ly that  a  change  of  Vice-President  could  be  made 
to-morrow.  I  have  been  too  ill  used  in  the  office  to 
be  fond  of  it,  if  I  had  not  been  introduced  into  it  in 
a  manner  that  made  it  a  disgrace.  I  will  never  serve 
in  it  again  upon  such  terms."  \  President  Jefferson 
appointed  John  Quincy  Adams  Minister  to  Russia. 
The  father  was  not  pleased.  "Aristides  is  banished 
because  he  is  too  just."  "He  will  not  leave  an 
honester  or  abler  man  behind  him.  He  was  sent 

*  Works,  ix.  417.  t  Hamilton's  Hamilton,  i.  16i. 

J  Works,  ix.  567. 


220  JOHN   ADAMS. 

away,  as  a  dangerous  rival  too  near  the  throne."* 
Certainly  these  are  great  vices ;  but  John  Adams 
possessed  such  virtues  that  he  can  afford  to  have  them 
told,  and  subtracted  from  his  real  merit.  He  was  so 
perfectly  open  that  it  is  himself  who  furnishes  all 
the  evidence  against  himself.  If  he  exaggerates  the 
faults  of  other  men,  he  treats  his  own  quite  as  se- 
riously. He  defended  Hancock,  whom  he  sometimes 
abused,  and  said,  "  If  he  had  vanity  and  caprice,  so 
had  I.  And  if  his  vanity  and  caprice  made  me  some- 
times splitter,  as  you  know  they  often  did,  mine,  I 
well  know,  had  often  a  similar  effect  upon  him.  But 
these  little  flickering 's  of  little  passions  determine  noth- 
ing concerning  essential  characters."  f 

III.  Adams  was  not  very  rich  in  his  affectional 
nature ;  the  objects  of  his  love  were  few.  Out  of 
the  family  circle,  I  think  he  had  no  intimates  or  con- 
fidants. There  were  no  friendships  between  him  and 
the  leading  Patriots  of  the  Revolution.  His  Diary 
represents  him  as  a  man  "intensely  solitary,"  who 
confided  little  in  any  one,  and  quarrelled  often  with 
many.  He  liked  the  Lees  of  Virginia ;  liked  Ralph 
Izard,  —  a  quite  unworthy  man;  but  made  friend- 
ships with  none  of  them,  not  even  with  Washington, 
Samuel  Adams,  John  Hancock,  and  other  famous 
chiefs  of  the  Revolution.  But  in  the  later  years  of 

*  Works,  x.  158.  t  Works,  x.  259. 


JOHN   ADAMS.  221 

his  life  a  friendship  quite  beautiful  sprang  up  with  Jef- 
ferson, his  old  rival  and  former  foe.  The  letters  which 
passed  between  them  are  an  honor  to  both  of  them, 
and  form  one  of  the  pleasantest  episodes  in  the  later 
lives  of  these  two  great  men.  The  rage  of  ambition 
is  all  over,  and  a  tone  of  friendship  enlivens  the 
themes  of  the  letters  which  occasionally  passed  be- 
tween them,  and  in  which  both  much  delighted.  His 
correspondence  with  Mr.  Van  der  Kemp,  a  learned 
and  scholarly  Dutchman,  whom  the  French  Revolu- 
tion drove  to  America,  shows  his  affection  in  its  most 
pleasing  light.  He  was  a  charitable  man,  and  did 
his  alms  in  secret.  While  President,  in  a  time  of 
great  distress,  he  subscribed  five  hundred  dollars  for 
the  poor  at  Philadelphia ;  but  he  did  it  in  private,  and 
kept  his  name  out  of  sight.  He  was  lenient  towards 
offenders.  Thus,  against  the  vehement  advice  of 
his  Cabinet,  he  pardoned  Mr.  Fries,  condemned  for 
treason.  The  leading  Federalists  hated  him  for  this 
act  of  righteous  clemency.*  But  he  sometimes 
writes  truculent  letters  about  men  who  used  what 
he  called  seditious  language. f  He  was  violent  in 
his  hasty  speech,  never  cruel  in  his  deliberate  acts. 

IV.     Mr.  Adams  had  strong  religious  emotions  — 
reverence  for  God,  conscientious  desire  to  keep  his 

*  Works,  ix.  57. 

f  Works,  ix.  13,  et.  seq. ;  ix.  582-684. 


222  JOHN  ADAMS. 

natural  Laws,  a  deep  remorse  when  he  violated  the 
integrity  of  his  own  conscience,  and  a  devout,  unfail- 
ing trust  in  the  goodness  of  God,  which  is  alike  the 
protection  of  Nations  and  of  individual  men.  He, 
by  his  nature,  inclined  to  the  Ministerial  profession  ; 
and  but  for  the  bigotry  of  that  age,  and  for  his  own 
spontaneous  enlightenment,  would  probably  have 
been  one  of  the  most  powerful  in  that  class  which 
has  enrolled  so  much  of  the  talent  and  virtue  of  New 
England,  and  made  so  profound  a  mark  on  the  char- 
acter of  the  people.  All  his  life  long  Mr.  Adams 
had  a  profound  religious  sense.  Though  hating  for- 
mality, he  was  yet  an  ecclesiastical  man  as  well  as  a 
religious  man.  But  he  hated  Hypocrisy,  hated  Big- 
otry, hated  Intolerance.  Not  a  word  of  cant  deforms 
his  writings.  In  his  early  life  he  learned  to  hate  Cal- 
vinism. That  hatred  continued  all  his  days.  He 
was  an  Arminian  at  twenty.  He  read  Bolingbroke, 
Morgan,  and  other  free-thinking  writers,  in  his 
youth.  Their  influence  is  obvious.  They  helped  to 
emancipate  him  from  the  thraldom  of  New  England 
Theology.  But  they  did  not  weaken  his  religious 
sense,  nor  impair  his  virtue.  When  an  old  man,  he 
read  the  great  French  writers  on  religious  matters, 
not  without  enlightenment  and  profit ;  but  he  did  not 
show  that  audacious  immorality  which  delighted  to 
pull  down,  with  mockery,  the  Sacred  Instruction 
which  they  neither  could  nor  would  replace,  nor 


JOHN   ADAMS.  223 

even  attempt  to  supply.  His  theological  opinions 
seem  to  have  been  much  like  those  of  Franklin, 
though  in  his  case  they  do  not  seem  to  have  had  the 
same  genial  influence. 

In  framing  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  in 
1779,  he  wished  religion  *  to  be  left  free.  All  sects, 
Christian  and  non-Christian,  were  to  be  equal  be- 
fore the  Law,  and  alike  eligible  to  all  offices.  He 
could  not  carry  that  point.  He  labored  for  the  same 
end  in  the  Convention  which  revised  the  Constitution 
of  Massachusetts  in  1820 ;  but  still  without  success. 
In  respect  to  religious  toleration  in  1779,  he  was  far 
in  advance  of  the  Convention  which  sat  forty  years 
later,  and  indeed  he  was  far  in  advance  of  the  Courts 
of  Massachusetts  of  this  present  day.  He  intro- 
duced a  remarkable  section  into  that  Constitution  for 
the  encouragement  of  Literature,  Science,  and  Mor- 
als, f  He  had  a  lively  indignation  against  "that  sys- 
tem of  holy  lies  and  pious  frauds  that  has  raged  and 
triumphed  for  fifteen  hundred  years."  He  detested 
the  cruelties  practised  in  the  name  of  religion.  "  Re- 
member the  Index  Expurgatorius,  the  Inquisition, 
the  stake,  the  axe,  the  halter,  and  the  guillotine,  and 
O,  horrible,  the  rack  !  "  J  He  writes  to  Jefferson, 
in  1817,  "Twenty  times  in  the  course  of  my  late 
reading,  have  I  been  on  the  point  of  breaking  out, 

*  Works,  i.  627;  IT.  221. 

f  Works,  ir.  259 ;  C.  F.  Adams's  note.  J  Works,  yi.  479. 


224  JOHN  ADAMS. 

'  This  would  be  the  best  of  all  possible  worlds  if  there 
were  no  religion  in  it ! '  But  in  this  exclamation  I 
should  have  been  as  fanatical  as  Bryant  or  Cleverly. 
Without  religion,  this  world  would  be  something  not 
fit  to  be  mentioned  in  polite  company,  —  I  mean 
Hell.  So  far  from  believing  in  the  total  and  univer- 
sal depravity  of  human  nature,  I  believe  there  is  no 
individual  totally  depraved.  The  most  abandoned 
scoundrel  that  ever  existed  never  yet  wholly  extin- 
guished his  conscience ;  and  while  conscience  re- 
mains, there  is  some  religion.  Popes,  Jesuits,  Sor- 
bonnists,  and  Inquisitors  have  some  conscience  and 
some  religion.  Fears  and  terrors  appear  to  have 
produced  a  universal  credulity.  .  .  .  But  fears  of 
pain  and  death  here  do  not  seem  to  have  been  so  un- 
conquerable as  fears  of  what  is  to  come  hereafter."  * 
He  sympathized  with  all  sects  in  their  desire  for 
Piety  and  Morality,  and  thought  Jefferson  as  "  good 
a  Christian  as  Priestley  and  Lindsey,  who  had  called 
Jefferson  an  unbeliever."  f  "  The  human  understand- 
ing is  a  Revelation  from  its  Maker,  which  can  never 
be  disputed  or  doubted."  "  No  prophecies,  no  mira- 
cles are  necessary  to  prove  this  celestial  communica- 
tion." |  He  scorns  the  doctrine  of  eternal  damna- 
tion. "  I  believe  no  such  things.  My  adoration  of 
the  Author  of  the  Universe  is  too  profound  and  too 
sincere.  The  love  of  God  and  of  his  creation  —  de- 

*  Works,  x.  254.    f  Works,  x.  56,  57.     J  Works,  x.  C6. 


JOHN    ADAMS.  225 

light,  joy,  triumph,  exultation  in  my  own  existence, 
—  though  but  an  atom,  a  molecule  organique,  in  the 
universe,  —  these  are  my  religion." 

"Howl,  snarl,  bite,  ye  Calvinistic,  ye  Athanasiau 
divines,  if  you  will.  Ye  will  say  I  am  no  Christian. 
I  say  ye  are  no  Christians,  and  there  the  account  is  bal- 
anced. Yet  I  believe  all  the  honest  men  among  you 
are  Christians  in  my  sense  of  the  word."  *  He  finds 
Christianity  before  Christ,  Christian  piety  in  the 
sacred  writers  before  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  He  w  does 
not  believe  in  demoniacal  possessions ;  even  if  the 
Evangelists  believed  it,  he  does  not."  f 

Of  course  the  charge  of  Infidelity  was  brought 
against  him,  as  against  all  thoughtful  and  outspoken 
men,  who  seek  to  understand  the  causes  of  things, 
and  to  trample  fear  beneath  their  feet. 

I  find  his  lack  of  religion  in  his  bad  temper,  in 
envy,  jealousy,  hate,  wrath ;  but  not  in  his  disbelief 
of  malignant  devils  and  eternal  Hell.  The  proof  of 
his  real  religion  I  find  in  his  Veracity,  his  Justice, 
Philanthropy,  and  in  that  Integrity  which,  I  think, 
never  failed  him. 

Mr.  Adams's  personal  appearance  was  not  impos- 
ing or  dignified.  He  was  less  then  the  average 
height  of  New  England  men,  though  with  much 
more  than  an  average  of  weight  and  width.  He  was, 

*  Works,  x.  67.  t  Works,  x.  92. 

15 


226  JOHN    ADAMS. 

in  fact,  a  stout,  corpulent  man.  His  head  was  large, 
wide  at  the  base,  nearly  round,  but  not  high.  His 
forehead  was  full  and  ample,  though  low  for  its 
width ;  the  mouth  well  cut,  the  nose  sufficiently 
massive.  The  general  appearance  of  the  face  indi- 
cated power  and  repose,  not  that  terrible  vehemence 
of  wrathful  emotions  with  which  it  was  sometimes 
animated.  His  bust  and  features  seem  to  afford  a 
good  likeness  of  the  man. 

Mr.  Adams  wrote  much,  but  he  only  wrote  books 
designed  to  meet  the  need  of  the  hour.  His  most 
important  writings  are  :  a  Discourse  on  the  Canon 
and  Feudal  Law,  1765  ;  the  State  papers  in  the  quar- 
rel between  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  and  Gov- 
ernor Hutchinson ;  the  Rights  and  Grievances  of  the 
American  Colonies,  1774 ;  his  Plans  of  Government 
of  the  Independent  States,  1776;  the  Constitution 
of  Massachusetts,  1779  ;  the  Defence  of  the  Ameri- 
can Constitution,  1786,  and  the  papers  on  Davila, 
written  while  he  was  Vice-President,  and  published 
in  the  Philadelphia  newspapers.  These  were  applica- 
tions of  his  political  principles  to  the  actual  affairs  of 
America.  In  all  these  the  style  is  poor,  inelegant, 
and  yet  artificial.  He  is  often  inaccurate  in  his 
statement  of  facts,  and  sometimes  hasty  in  his  gen- 
eralizations. His  first  address  as  President  contains 
a  sentence  which  I  think  was  then  the  longest  in 
what  is  known  of  the  English  language.  It  since 


JOHN   ADAMS.  227 

has  been  but  once  surpassed,  and  that  by  another 
citizen  of  Massachusetts  who  is  yet  more  distin- 
guished than  Mr.  Adams  for  literary  culture. 

His  letters  are  the  most  pleasing  part  of  his  works, 
the  only  part  now  readable.  Here  the  best  are  found 
in  the  beautiful  correspondence  with  Jefferson,  full 
of  wit  and  wisdom,  and,  above  all,  enriched  with  a 
gentleness  and  affection  that  you  vainly  seek  in  so 
many  other  works  of  the  great  man.  But  the  most 
charming  of  all  his  many  writings  are  the  letters  to 
his  wife.  I  think  more  than  three  hundred  of  them 
have  been  printed,  and  I  know  not  where  in  the 
English  language  to  find  so  delightful  a  collection. 
He  had  but  one  confidant,  his  wife ;  but  one  inti- 
mate friend,  the  mother  of  his  children.  To  her  he 
told  all  —  his  loves  and  his  hates,  his  anger  and  his 
gratitude,  his  hopes  and  his  fears.  She  was  able  to 
comprehend  his  great  mind,  to  sympathize  in  all  his 
excellence.  Her  judgment  seems  to  have  been  as 
sound  as  his  own.  If  not  original  like  his,  like 
Washington's  it  was  cool,  critical,  and  accurate. 
She  poured  oil  on  the  troubled  waters  of  his  life, 
and  called  him  to  behold  the  heavenly  bow  of  beauty 
and  of  hope  in  the  cloud  which  brooded  over  them. 
The  cloud  dropped  down,  and  the  Sunshine  followed 
in  the  footsteps  of  the  storm. 

He  was  not  what  is  now  called  an  eloquent  man. 
He  had  no  oratorical  tricks,  no  stops  for  applause, 


228  JOHN    ADAMS. 

no  poetic  images,  nothing  of  what  the  editors  and 
reporters  and  half-educated  ministers  name  "  fine 
writing,"  and  what  school-girls  call  "  perfectly  splen- 
did." But  everywhere  strong  sense,  mastery  of  his 
matter,  philosophic  knowledge  of  causes,  vehemence 
of  emotion,  and  condensed  richness  of  thought.  The 
form  is  often  faulty  and  misshapen,  but  the  substance 
strong  and  sound.  He  moved  other  persons,  for  he 
was  moved  himself,  and  the  great  natural  force  which 
stirred  him  he  brought  to  bear  on  other  men.  So  he 
was  always  powerful  as  a  speaker  and  writer.  Yet, 
July  2,1776,1  think  men  did  not  say,  "  What  a  fine 
speech  John  Adams  made!"  but  only,  w  Down  with 
the  Kingly  Government."  He  abounded  in  Eve^eiu, 
which  Demosthenes  said  was  the  first,  second,  and 
third  requisite  in  oratory.  Scarce  any  specimens  of 
his  speeches  are  left ;  only  the  fame  of  their  power 
survives.  You  often  find  profound  thought  in  his 
writings.*  No  American  writer  upon  Politics  more 
abounds  in  it. 

He  had  not  much  confidence  in  the  people,  no  in- 
stinct of  Democracy.  He  leaned  to  aristocratic 
forms  of  Government.  So,  in  the  Constitution  of 
the  State  of  Massachusetts,  he  would  give  the  Gov- 

*  Works,  iv.  216.  He  argued  that  it  was  impossible  for  human 
wisdom  to  form  a  plan  of  government  that  should  suit  all  future 
emergencies,  and  that,  therefore,  periodical  revisions  were  requi- 
site. 


JOHN   ADAMS.  229 

ernor  an  absolute  negative  to  all  Acts  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, and  empower  him  to  appoint  all  the  officers  of 
the  Militia,  the  Generals,  Colonels,  Majors,  Captains, 
and  so  on  down  to  the  Sergeants  and  Corporals.* 

He  insisted  on  four  things  in  his  Plan  of  Govern- 
ment. (1.)  A  separation  of  the  legislative,  judicial, 
and  executive  Powers.  (2.)  The  Legislature  must 
have  two  bodies,  a  House  and  a  Senate.  (3.)  The 
Judiciary  must  be  appointed  during  good  behavior. 
(4.)  The  Executive  must  be  single;  one  man,  not  a 
council  of  men.  It  was  a  wise  man  who  devised 
such  a  scheme  in  1776.  He  was  often  accused  of 
favoring  Monarchy,  and  wishing  to  establish  in  Amer- 
ica a  King  and  a  House  of  Lords.  The  charge  is 
utterly  false.  I  think  Jefferson  is  not  blameless  for 
his  representation  of  Adams's  opinions.  He  foresaw 
the  greatness  of  America,  and  in  1786  said,  "  We 
are  now  employed  in  making  establishments  which 
will  affect  the  happiness  of  a  hundred  millions  of  in- 
habitants at  a  time,  in  a  period  not  very  distant. "f 
He  wrote  a  book  on  all  the  liberal  Governments  of 
the  world,  to  show  their  virtues  and  their  vices.  He 
dared  tell  the  faults  of  our  own  Institutions.  J  Who 

*  Works,  iv.  186,  231,  249,  260,  258.  See  his  respect  for  birth, 
vi.  502.  But  see,  in  this  connection,  ix.  574;  also,  ix.  376,  551, 
557,  571,  590. 

t  Works,  iv.  587.     Cunningham  Correspondence. 

J  Works,  iv.  276,  399 ;  also  x.  268.  Cunningham  Letters,  lix. 
p.  195. 


230  JOHN  ADAMS. 

ventures  on  that  now?     Even  then  he  was,  for  doing 
so,  much  abused. 

In  1780  Dr.  Franklin  wrote  from  France  home  to 
his  Government,  that  "  Adams  means  well  for  his 
country,  is  always  an  honest  man,  often  a  wise  one, 
sometimes,  and  in  some  things,  is  absolutely  out  of 
his  senses  ;  "  *  and  adds  also,  "  I  know  that  by  tell- 
ing it  I  hazard  a  mortal  enmity."  The  criticism  was 
just,  and  also  the  forecast  of  its  consequence.  But 
weigh  the  man  in  an  even  balance.  His  faults  were 
chiefly  of  ill-temper  and  haste ;  his  virtues  —  Patri- 
otism, Truthfulness,  Moral  Courage,  Integrity — have 
seldom  been  surpassed,  nay,  rarely  equalled  in  pub- 
lic men.  He  had  no  prejudice  against  any  section 
of  the  country.  Here  he  was  superior  to  both  Jef- 
ferson and  Washington,  who  ever  denied  justice  to 
New  England.  He  was  an  intense  Patriot,  and  did 
not  hesitate  to  sacrifice  his  dearest  personal  wishes 
for  the  good  of  his  country.  In  his  later  days  some 
distinguished  foreigners  came  to  visit  him  at  Quincy. 
He  met  them  by  appointment,  and  sat  in  a  great 
chair  in  the  shade  close  by  his  house.  "  In  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fight  did  you  think  you  should  suc- 
ceed ?"  asked  one  of  the  visitors.  "Yes,"  said  the 
old  man ;  "  I  never  doubted  that  the  country  would 
succeed,  but  I  expected  nothing  but  certain  ruin  for 
myself." 

*  Diplomatic  Corres.  of  Revolution,  iv.  139. 


JOHN   ADAMS.  231 

The  hate  against  him  has  not  died  away.  Still, 
for  old  Federalist  and  for  old  Democratic  families, 
detraction  is  busy  at  its  work.  But  after  all  just 
deduction  is  made  from  his  conduct,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  no  man  has  had  so  wide,  so  deep,  and  so 
lasting  an  influence  on  the  great  constructive  work 
of  framing  the  best  Institutions  of  America.  And 
the  judgment  of  posterity  will  be,  that  he  was  a 
brave  man,  deep-sighted,  conscientious,  patriotic, 
and  possessed  of  Integrity  which  nothing  ever  shook, 
but  which  stood  firm  as  the  granite  of  his  Quincy 
Hills.  While  American  Institutions  continue,  the 
People  will  honor  brave,  honest  old  John  Adams, 
who  never  failed  his  country  in  her  hour  of  need, 
and  who,  in  his  life  of  more  than  ninety  years, 
though  both  passionate  and  ambitious,  wronged  no 
man  nor  any  woman  I 


THOMAS   JEFFERSOK 


(333) 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 


NEW  ENGLAND  was  settled  by  real  Colonists; 
men  full  of  ideas  which  were  far  in  advance  of  their 
times.  These  ideas  could  not  be  carried  out  in  Eng- 
land, and  therefore  they  emigrated  to  what  was  af- 
terwards called  the  "NEW  ENGLAND."  Here  Demo- 
cratic Institutions  at  once  sprung  up  among  them. 
Their  antecedents  and  their  principles  could  not  have 
produced  any  different  growth.  The  distinction  be- 
tween rich  and  poor,  educated  and  ignorant,  soon 
became  the  chief  differences  in  their  social  scale. 
There  was  but  one  sort  of  men,  though  many  condi- 
tions. The  Government  was  by  the  people,  and  it 
favored  the  distribution  of  wealth,  not  its  accumula- 
tion in  special  families.  Education  was  open  to  all, 
at  the  public  cost.  The  form  of  Religion  was  Con- 
gregational. The  Congregational  Church  had  more 
individual  members  than  any  Christian  sect.  The 
theology  was  Calviuistic,  and  that  always  stimu- 
lates men  to  metaphysical  speculation  and  to  liberal 
study. 

(236) 


236  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

In  Virginia,  it  was  quite  different.  Religion  had 
nothing  to  do  with  its  settlement.  Partly,  the  emi- 
grants were  younger  sons  of  younger  brothers,  de- 
scendants from  wealthy  houses,  who  either  had  some 
moderate  property,  or  had  got  manorial  grants  of  land 
from  the  Crown ;  partly,  they  were  the  servants  and 
vassals  of  these  nominal  lords  of  Manors,  and  partly, 
they  were  the  scourings  of  the  British  jails.  They 
brought  no  superior  Ideas  along  with  them.  They 
did  not  found  democratic  institutions ;  for  all  their 
care  was  to  keep  their  institutions  aristocratic.  The 
Government  was  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  and  it  favored 
the  entailment  of  property  on  a  few,  not  its  distribu- 
tion among  many.  It  kept  up  the  division  of  Castes, 
so  that  there  should  be  as  many  sorts  of  men  as  there 
were  conditions  of  society.  Social  distinction  was 
founded  on  the  acknowledged  differences  in  birth, 
property,  and  powerful  connection,  and  to  appear- 
ance not  at  all  dependent  upon  knowledge,  virtue, 
or  true  nobility  of  character.  No  pains  were  taken 
to  provide  for  public  education. 

The  Printing  Press  had  come  early  to  New  Eng- 
land, where  it  had  printed  Eliot's  translation  of  the 
Bible  into  the  Indian  language,  and  had  published 
two  editions  of  it  long  before  Virginia  had  produced 
a  printed  line. 

The  form  of  Religion  in  Virginia  was  Episcopal. 
None  other  was  tolerated.  It  encouraged  neither 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  237 

metaphysical  thought  nor  biblical  study.  This 
tended  to  repress  individuality  of  religion. 

In  New  England  wealth  was  diffused ;  education, 
political  power,  all  were  diffused  widely.  In  1764, 
James  Otis  said,  "The  Colonists  are  men ;  the  Colo- 
nists are  therefore  free  born ;  for,  by  the  law  of  Na- 
ture, all  men  are  free  born,  white  or  black.  No  good 
reason  can  be  given  for  enslaving  them  of  any  color. 
Is  it  right  to  enslave  a  man  because  his  color  is  black, 
or  his  hair  short  and  curled  like  wool,  instead  of 
Christian  hair?  Can  any  logical  inference  or  form 
of  slavery  be  drawn  from  a  flat  nose,  or  a  long  or 
short  face  ?  The  riches  of  the  West  Indies,  or  the 
luxury  of  the  metropolis,  should  not  have  weight  to 
swerve  the  balance  of  Truth  and  Justice.  Liberty  is 
the  gift  of  God,  and  cannot  be  annihilated." 

In  a  word,  in  Virginia  everything  was  condensed 
upon  a  few,  while  in  New  England  all  was  thorough- 
ly Democratic.  Still  it  might  be  seen,  that  in  Vir- 
ginia, while  her  Institutions  were  framed,  and  in- 
tended to  be  thoroughly  Aristocratic,  yet  in  spite 
of  them  the  excellent  men  in  that  new  country  could 
not  be  kept  down.  They  would  rise,  and  by  the 
natural  high  pressure  of  their  qualities  they  would, 
like  water,  seek  their  natural  level,  because  a  down- 
ward tendency  is  impossible  to  Human  Nature.  And 
so,  too,  in  New  England,  it  happened  that,  although 
all  her  Institutions  had  been,  from  the  beginning, 


238  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

most  eminently  Liberal  and  Popular,  yet  many  things 
there  hindered  the  immediate  and  free  development 
of  the  People. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  in  Virginia 
there  were  three  classes  of  free  white  men. 

First.  The  great  proprietors,  who  owned  large 
tracts  of  land.  These  were  the  "  First  Families  "  of 
Virginia,  who,  though  dwelling  in  "abodes  compara- 
tively mean,"  affected  to  live  in  the  style  of  British 
Nobles.  They  had  rude  wealth,  laud,  cattle,  fine 
horses,  slaves,  white  servants,  "bought  for  a  time," 
and  abundance  of  maize,  wheat,  and  especially  of 
tobacco  —  the  great  article  of  export. 

Second.  The  small  proprietors,  men  with  moderate 
landed  estates,  cultivated  under  their  own  eye.  Some 
of  these  became  rich  men,  but  never  acquired  that 
social  rank  to  which  the  first  were  born.  Yet  the 
primal  vigor  of  this  population,  its  ready  talent,  and 
all  its  instinct  of  progress,  lay  in  this  second  class, 
whence  have  arisen,  I  think,  all  the  distinguished 
men  of  Virginia. 

Third.  Below  these  was  the  class  of  poor  whites, 
indispensable  to  such  a  scheme  of  society.  These 
were  laborers,  without  landed  property  more  than  a 
patch  of  ground,  and  a  little  hovel,  which  added  the 
deformity  of  a  low  Humanity  to  the  original  beauty 
of  Nature.  These  men  had  no  literary  or  scientific 
education,  and  could  obtain  none. 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  239 

Underneath  all  were  the  negro  slaves,  who  gave  a 
peculiar  character  to  the  entire  colony,  affecting  its 
industry,  its  thought,  and  its  morals. 

In  the  second  class  of  small  proprietors  was  born 
Peter  Jefferson,  on  the  29th  of  February,  1708,  at 
Osbornes,  on  James  River,  in  Chesterfield  County. 
The  family  had  come  from  Wales.  Peter  seems  to 
have  inherited  no  property ;  the  Jefferson  family,  I 
think,  was  poorer  than  the  average  of  the  class,  just 
above  the  poor  whites.  Peter  had  no  education  in 
early  life,  but  was  able-minded  as  well  as  able- 
bodied,  with  a  thoughtful  turn.  He  became  a  sur- 
veyor of  land,  mainly  self-taught,  I  fancy.  He  got 
a  little  property  together,  and  in  1735  "patented" 
one  thousand  acres  of  land ;  that  is,  had  it  granted 
him  by  the  Legislature  of  the  Colony  of  Virginia. 
He  bought  four  hundred  acres  more,  the  considera- 
tion paid  being  "Henry  Weatherbourne's  biggest  bowl 
of  arrack  punch  "  !  He  made  a  little  clearing  in  the 
primeval  forest,  and  began  his  career  as  a  planter. 
In  1738  he  married  Jane  Randolph,  she  being  in 
her  twentieth,  he  in  his  thirtieth  year.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  Isham  Randolph,  a  wealthy  man,  who 
lived  in  rough  splendor  and  had  great  pretensions 
to  family  dignity,  well  educated  for  a  man  of  that 
time ;  he  was,  moreover,  intelligent  and  generous. 
Peter  took  his  wife,  delicately  bred  as  she  had 
been,  to  his  rough  farm,  which  he  called  Shad  well. 


240  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

Here  he  planted  his  family  tree,  and  subsequently 
became  a  prosperous  man.  He  was  appointed  by 
the  Legislature,  in  connection  with  Professor  Fry, 
to  make  a  map  of  Virginia.  The  work  was  done 
well  for  the  time.  He  was  commissioned  Justice  of 
the  Peace,  and  appointed  Colonel,  and  afterwards 
elected  member  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  of  the 
Colony  of  Virginia.  He  died  August  17,  1757. 

At  Shad  well,  on  the  13th  of  April,  1743,  his  first 
son  and  third  child  was  born,  and  christened  THOMAS. 
His  lineage  was  humble,  as  Virginians  count  gene- 
alogy ;  his  destination  was  not  humble,  as  Virginia's 
history  may  certify.  After  the  great  men  I  have  be- 
fore sketched,  none  has  had  so  much  influence  on  the 
destiny  of  America.  Let  us  look  this  boy  carefully 
in  the  face,  and  consider  his  deeds  throughout  all 
periods  of  his  life,  the  character  therein  developed, 
and  the  extraordinary  eminence  he  thereby  acquired. 

I.    Look  at  his  boyhood  and  youth.     1743  to  1764. 

At  the  age  of  five  he  was  sent  to  a  common  school 
at  Tuckahoe,  where  the  family  moved  when  he  was 
two  years  old.  At  nine  years  of  age  he  studies  un- 
der the  Rev.  Mr.  Douglass,  a  Scotchman,  a  scholar, 
and  an  Episcopal  Minister  at  Shadwell.  With  him 
the  boy  begins  Latin,  Greek,  and  French.  He  lived 
with  the  Minister,  -  and  found  good  instruction  and 
mouldy  pies.  At  fourteen  he  goes  to  Rev.  Mr. 


THOMAS    JEFFEltSON.  241 

Maury's  school,  fourteen  miles  off,  at  Peter's  Moun- 
tain. Mr.  Maury,  also  a  Scotchman,  was  a  good 
scholar  and  a  good  teacher.  In  his  spare  time 
Thomas  hunts  on  Peter's  Mountain,  and  acquires 
an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  animals  and  the  plants, 
and  some  general  knowledge  of  Natural  History. 
These  two  gentlemen  kept  schools  at  their  parson- 
ages. When  company  came  the  schools  broke  up, 
and  thus  Thomas  got  less  Latin  and  more  hunting. 
The  pay  for  his  board  and  instruction  was  sixteen 
pounds  a  year  at  the  one  place,  and  twenty  pounds 
at  the  other.  He  was  a  bright  boy,  courteous  and 
quick. 

In  1760,  aged  seventeen,  he  entered  William  and 
Mary's  College,  at  Williamsburg,  the  capital  of  the 
Province,  a  town  of  fifteen  hundred  or  two  thousand 
inhabitants.  Here  he  found  another  Scotchman, 
Professor  Small,  a  good  scholar,  who  still  further 
helped  and  stimulated  the  intelligent  youth.  Jeffer- 
son was  a  friend  of  Dr.  Small,  and  was  devoted  to 
study,  often  working  fifteen  hours  a  day.  The  Greek 
and  Latin  languages,  and  the  mathematics,  were  his 
favorite  pursuits.  Metaphysics  and  ethics  he  great- 
ly disliked.  He  did  not  incline  to  works  of  fiction, 
commonly  so  attractive  to  young  minds.  He  was 
highly  moral,  it  is  said,  but  fond  of  horses,  which 
fondness  continued  all  his  life.  He  was  also  inclined 
to  music,  and  learned  to  play  skilfully  on  the  violin. 
16 


""242  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

Thus  he  did  iiot  forget  his  sport  in  his  toil.  He 
staid  at  college  but  two  years,  and  then,  at  nineteen, 
at  the  same  place,  began  the  study  of  Law  with  Mr. 
George  Wythe,  thought  to  be  a  profound  lawyer  at 
that  tirfie.  He  continued  this  preparation. for  his 
profession  five  years,  often  studying  fourteen  or  fif- 
teen hours  a  day.  He  had  a,  natural  fondness  for 
profound  investigation,  yet  he  found  Coke  "a  dull 
old  scoundrel."  He  learned,  the  Anglo-Saxon,  the 
itaiian,.aud  jthe  Spanish. Languages,  and,  it  seems, 
read  r$anyJbQ6k$.  very  indirectly  connected  with  his 
profession.  HereTie  became  intimate  with-Mr.  Fau- 
quier,  the  royal  Governor  of  Virginia,  a.distinguished 
man,  with  quite  elegant  manners.  Living  familiarly 
in  the  best  society  of  the  Provincial  capital,  it  was 
here  and  at  this  period  that  Jefferson  acquired  the 
easy  carriage,  gentlemanly  deportment,  and  courteous 
manners  which  distinguished  him  all  his  life,  and 
-which  greatly  helped  his  success.  Governor  Fauquier 
was  a  gamWer,  and  contaminated  the  Province  with 
this  vice.  Jefferson  kept  clear  from  this  detestable 
wickedness,  shunning  and  hating  it  all  his  life. 
Fauquier  was  also  a  Freethinker  in  religion,  and 
the  effect  was  visible  on  the  young  man. 

He  fell  in  lave  at  this  early  period,  like  other 
young  men,  and,  like- them,  wrote  silly  letters,  such 
as  are  still  penned.  Indeed,  all  his  letters  of  this 
period  are,  rather  frivolous.  He  talks  about  "  Becca  " 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  243 

and  "  Sukey,"  «  Judy  "  and  "  Belinda,"  finding  those 
names  more  attractive  than  that  "dull  old  scoundrel," 
Lord  Coke.  "  How  did  Nancy  look  aU  yfluiwhen-  you 
danced  with  her  afSdutlialt'S?^  '•  *  *  •  •  I  • 

"Handsome  in  his*  olcf  rtge;*iivmVy6uth  Jefferson 
was  no  beauty.  "Then  h'6*  wa's  tall?  thin,  and  "raw- 
boned  ;  had  red  "hair,  -a  freckled  face,  and  pointed 
features  ;  "  but  his  face  was  intelligent  and  kindly,  he 
talked  with  ease  and  grace,  and  in  spite  of  exterior 
disadvantages,  was  a  •  favorite  with"  all  the  young 
women.* 

At  the  age  of  twenty-four,  1767,  he  was  admitted 
to  practice  at  the  bar.  Thus  far  his  life  had  been  an 
easy  one,  and'  singularly  prosperous.  How  different 
from  the  youth  of  Franklin,  or  of  Washington,  or  of 
Adams  {  He  kept  .hi'mse'lf  free  from  the  common 
vices  of  Virginia  young  men,  such  as  ga'ming,  drunk- 
enness, debauchery  ;  he  never  swore  or  used  tobacco. 
His  letters  begin  in  his  twentieth  year,  and,  though 
somewhat  frivolous,  are  written  in  a  natural  style  at 
once  easy  arid  elegant.  Here  was  a  dawn  to  promise 
the  great  man. 

II.  1764-1768.  A  Lawyer  and  Politician,  engaged 
in  the  affairs  of  Virginia  and  of  the  Nation,  Jefferson 
had  his  office  at  Williamsburg,  the  capital  of  that 
Colony.  It  seems  he  "  had  little  taste  for  the  techni- 

*  Tucker,  i.  23. 


244  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

calities  and  chicanery  of  that  profession,"  and  never 
thought  very  highly  of  lawyers  as  a  class.  "  Their 
business  is  to  talk,"  said  he.  For  the  seven  or  eight 
years  he  followed  this  profession  he  gradually  rose 
to  some  eminence.  His  style  was  clear,  but  his 
voice  poor  and  feeble,  and,  after  speaking  a  few 
moments,  it  "  would  sink  in  his  throat."  He  was 
not  meant  for  a  speaker.  Yet,  it  appears,  he  had  a 
considerable  business  for  a  young  man.  I  find  him 
employed  in  about  five  hundred  causes  previous  to 
the  year  1771,  and  in  about  four  hundred  and  fifty 
causes  in  the  next  three  and  a  half  years,  when  he 
finally  gave  up  business.  His  total  fees  of  1771 
were  about  two  thousand  dollars  for  the  year ;  and 
that,  probably,  shows  the  average  of  his  profes- 
sional receipts. 

In  1772,  January  1,  in  the  twenty-ninth  year  of 
his  age,  Mr.  Jefferson  married  Mrs.  Martha  Skelton, 
the  childless  widow  of  Bathurst  Skelton,  and  the 
daughter  of  John  Wayles.  She  is  said  to  have  been 
handsome  and  accomplished,  and  she  certainly  was 
rich.  Jefferson  then  owned  one  thousand  nine  hun- 
dred acres  of  land  and  forty  or  fifty  slaves,  bringing 
him  an  income  of  two  thousand  dollars  a  year.  Mr. 
Skelton's  widow  brought  him  forty  thousand  acres  of 
land  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  slaves,  which 
she  had  inherited  from  her  father. 

Such  was  the  marriage  portion  of  the  great  Dem- 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  245 

ocrat.*  The  marriage  was  happy,  and  both  parties 
seem  to  have  been  greatly  fond  of  each  other.  Many 
tender  little  passages  occur  in  his  life  showing  how 
deep  was  their  mutual  affection.  There  is  no  more 
talk  about  "  Becca  "  and  "  Sukey  "  in  the  letters. 

In  1769,  three  years  before  his  marriage,  at  about 
the  age  of  twenty-six,  he  had  been  chosen  member  of 
the  House  of  Burgesses  for  Albemarle  County.  He 
was  on  the  side  of  America,  and  against  the  oppres- 
sive measures  of  George  III.  Still  more,  in  favor  of 
Liberty,  he  urged  the  Legislature  to  allow  individ- 
uals to  emancipate  their  slaves.  No ;  it  could  not  be 
granted.  Not  until  1782  could  he  persuade  that 
body  to  allow  manumission  in  Virginia,  f  In  1774 
the  Governor  dissolved  the  House.  Some  of  the 
most  patriotic  men  met  in  a  tavern  to  consider  the 
matter.  Thomas  Jefferson  was  one  of  them. 

In  May,  1774,  there  was  a  People's  Convention  in 
Virginia,  the  first  ever  held  there  without  expresa 
form  of  law.  This  Convention  was  to  choose  del- 
egates to  the  Continental  Congress,  which  had  been 
called  to  meet  at  Philadelphia,  in  September.  Jeffer- 
son did  not  attend  the  Convention,  being  prevented 
by  illness ;  but  he  drew  up  a  form  of  instructions  for 
the  delegates  to  Congress,  that  it  might  be  offered  to 
the  Convention,  and  adopted  therein.  This  was  a 

*  Randall,  i.  63-65. 

t  Tucker,  i.  43 ;  also  Randall,  i.  58. 


246  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

very  remarkable  paper,  and  revolutionary  enough  for 
New  England.  His  draft  was  not  adopted  ;  but  it 
was  read,  and  afterwards  printed  as  "A  Summary 
View  of  the  Rights  of  British  America."  The  leap 
was  too  long,  as  yet,  for  the  mass  of  the  citizens. 
The  "  instructions "  declared  that  the  king  "  has  no 
right  to  land  a  single  armed  man  on  our  shores." 
"The  God  who  gave  us  life,  gave  us  liberty  at  the 
same  time."  * 

On  May  17,  1775,  he  was  chosen  member  of  Con- 
gress, to  supply  the  place  of  Peyton  Randolph.  He 
took  his  seat,  June  21,  1775,  rather  an  obscure  man 
then,  with  on\y  a  Virginia  reputation.  He  had  no 
national  fame  save  what  the  "Summary  View"  of 
1774  had  given  him.  He  was  a  silent  member,  but 
John  Adams  calls  him  "powerful,  frank,  explicit, 
and  decisive." 

His  most  important  services  in  Congress  were, 
(1)  his  draft  of  an  address  on  the  "  Causes  of  taking 
up  arms  against  England ;"  f  (2)  the  answer  which 
he  wrote  to  Lord  North's  "  Conciliatory  proposition  ; " 
and  (3)  his  report  of  the  far-famed  "DECLARATION 
OF  INDEPENDENCE,"  to  me  the  most  remarkable  and 
important  State  paper  in  the  world.  Some  of  his 
descendants  in  Boston,  I  am  told,  still  keep  the  little 

*  Tucker,  i.  60,  61. 

t  This  address  was  not  adopted,  but  shared  the  fate  of  his  draft  of 
"  instructions  "  in  the  Virginia  Convention. 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  247 

desk  he  wrote  it  upon.  I  hope  the  spirit  of  De- 
mocracy, which  is  freedom  to  all  men,  still  animates 
and  inspires  all  who  write  or  look  thereon. 

In  1776,  September  1,  Jefferson  returned  from 
Congress,  and  devoted  himself  to  reconstructing  the 
Constitution  of  his  native  State.  He  drafted  a  sketch 
or  outline  of  a  Constitution,  which  was  not  accepted, 
and  is  now  lost ;  but  he  wrote  the  preamble  to  the 
Constitution,  which  was  adopted.  This  came  from 
the  same  inspiration  which  had  animated  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  He  took  his  seat  in  the 
Virginia  House  of  Delegates,  October  7,  1776,  and 
there  began  the  other  great  work  of  his  life,  the 
thorough  Reformation  of  the  State  Institutions. 

1.  He  proposed  to  abolish  all  entails  of  landed 
estates.     The   actual   possessors  of  entailed  estates 
might  dispose  of  them  like  other  property.     This 
was   a   Revolution.     Jefferson    laid   the   democratic 
axe  at   the   root  of  that   evil   tree  which   poisoned 
the   people.     You   may  guess  at  the  opposition  to 
the  measure,  and  the  wrath  against  its  author.     But 
it  prevailed.     Males  and  the  first-born  were  to  have 
no  special  privilege.     Primogeniture  was  done  away 
with.     All   the   children   might   share   alike    in  the 
inheritance  of  their  father's  land  and  goods. 

2.  He  advised  that  foreigners  should  be  allowed 
to  become  naturalized,  and  to  attain  all  the  rights  of 
citizens. 


248  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

3.  He  recommended  the  revision  of  the  laws 'in 
three  important  matters. 

The  penal  laws  must  be  mitigated.  The  pen- 
alty of  death  ought  to  be  limited  to  murder  and 
treason.  There  should  be  no  imprisonment  for 
honest  debt. 

There  must  be  complete  religious  freedom.  No 
one  should  be  forced  to  pay  for  opinions  which  he 
disliked,  or  for  the  support  of  any  form  of  reli- 
gion against  his  will.  The  church  must  rest  on 
the  voluntary  contributions  of  the  people.  The  law 
may  judge  no  man's  opinions.  The  Commonwealth 
of  Virginia,  like  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  is  to  show 
no  special  favor  to  Christians,  but  Jews,  Mohamme- 
dans, Deists,  and  Atheists  are  all  to  be  equal  before 
the  law,  and  alike  eligible  to  all  offices.  The 
church  Establishment  should  be  abolished,  and  all 
religious  sects  put  on  an  equal  footing. 

He  would  provide  for  the  public  education  of 
the  people,  promote  the  culture  of  the  great  mass 
of  men  in  free  common  schools,  and  improve  the 
colleges  for  the  superior  education  of  the  few. 

Some  of  these  things  he  accomplished  at  once. 
Others  were  so  far  in  advance  of  the  times,  that 
years  must  elapse  before  his  ideas  could  be  real- 
ized. He  wished  to  abolish  Slavery,  but  he  had 
tried  in  vain  to  procure  an  act  to  enable  a  master 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  249 

to  emancipate  his  slaves.  So  in  the  revision  of  the 
laws  he  made  no  new  attempt. 

In  these  great  works  other  men  labored  with 
Jefferson,  but  his  was  the  leading  mind,  and  shot 
before  all  others  in  the  Slaveholding  States. 

Next  he  was  chosen  Governor  of  Virginia,  June 
1,  1779.  He  was  reflected  the  following  year. 
Here  he  had  a  difficult  work  to  perform.  Virginia 
contained  about  two  hundred  and  ninety  thousand 
free  whites,  and  two  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
slaves.  They  were  scattered  over  sixty-one  thou- 
sand square  miles.  The  militia  included  all  the 
free  white  men  between  sixteen  and  sixty ;  but  so 
scattered  was  the  population,  that,  in  most  of  the 
settled  parts  of  the  State  there  was  not  one  militia- 
man to  a  square  mile.  And  so  ill-armed  were  the 
people,  that  there  was  not  more  than  one  gun  that 
could  fire  a  bullet,  to  five  militia-men.  Not  a  gun 
to  five  square  miles  of  land  !  In  an  average  tract 
of  ten  miles  square,  containing  a  hundred  square 
miles,  there  would  not  be  twenty  guns.  When 
recruits  were  drafted  into  the  militia,  many  came 
without  hats  or  caps,  and  were,  moreover,  barefoot ! 
Besides  all  that,  the  State  of  Virginia  had  no  ship- 
ping. There  were  two  hundred  and  seventy  thou- 
sand men,  black  enemies  in  the  midst  of  the  people, 
ready  to  side  with  an  invader  when  he  should  ap- 
pear. The  coast  of  Virginia  is  intersected  with 


250  THOMAS   JEFFEKSON. 

bays  and  navigable  rivers.  In  1781  the  British  at- 
tacked the  State  with  a  numerous  fleet  and  well- 
appointed  armies ;  what  defence  could  be  made  ? 
With  the  most  able  Governor  she  could  not  have 
done  much.  But  Jefferson  had  little  administrative 
skill,  and  not  the  least  military  talent  or  disposition. 
The  British  did  what  they  would  in  his  State,  — 
burnt  the  houses,  pillaged  the  people,  and  in  a 
few  months  did  damage  to  the  amount  of  ten  million 
hard  dollars.  Thirty  thousand  slaves  were  carried 
off.  The  British  did  not  arm  them  and  set  them 
against  their  masters,  else  the  State  had  been  lost 
beyond  recovery.  Jefferson's  own  estates  were  plun- 
dered. He  barely  escaped  being  taken  prisoner, 
for  the  militia  made  scarce  any  defence.  Only  two 
hundred  men  could  be  found  to  defend  Richmond, 
one  of  the  largest  towns  in  the  State. 

Jefferson  resigned  his  office,  declining  a  reelection 
in  1781.  He  found  he  was  unfit  for  the  station,  and 
left  it  for  braver  and  more  military  men.  An  at- 
tempt was  made  to  impeach  him,  but  it  failed ;  and, 
instead  of  impeaching  him,  the  Legislature  subse- 
quently passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  him. 

In  1781  I  find  him  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Delegates,  working  nobly  for  the  great  enterprises 
that  have  been  previously  mentioned.  He  went 
back  to  Congress  in  1783,  and  there  he,  the  author 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  helped  to  ratify 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  251 

the  treaty  of  peace.  In  1780,  June  1,  the  Delegates 
of  Virginia  ceded  the  portion  claimed  by  her  of  the 
North-west  Territory  to  the  United  States.  Con- 
gress in  1784  passed  the  famous  "Ordinance  of  the 
North-west  Territory."  Jefferson  drafted  the  bill, 
and  provided  that  the  governments  to  be  constituted 
therein  "  shall  be  in  republican  forms,  and  shall 
admit  no  person  to  be  a  citizen  who  holds  any  hered- 
itary title ; "  "  that  after  the  year  1800  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involun- 
tary servitude  in  any  of  the  said  States,  otherwise 
than  in  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof  the  party 
shall  have  been  duly  convicted  to  have  been  per- 
sonally guilty."  *  A  motion  was  made  on  the  19th 

*  Randall,  i.  398.  In  April,  1784,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  Chairman 
of  a  Committee  (Mr.  Chase  of  Maryland  and  Howell  of  Rhode  Is- 
land also  were  members),  and  in  that  capacity  submitted  a  plan  for 
the  government  of  the  entire  western  region,  from  the  thirty-first 
degree  of  north  latitude  to  the  northern  boundary  of  the  United 
States  (thus  including  much  more  than  the  territory  north-west  of 
the  Ohio  River).  One  of  the  provisions  of  this  important  bill  was, 
"  that  after  the  year  1800  there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involun- 
tary servitude  in  any  of  the  said  States  "  into  which  it  was  provided 
that  the  territory  might  be  divided,  "  other  than  in  the  punishment  of 
crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted."  The 
question  being  taken  upon  this  proviso,  six  States  voted  for  it,  and 
but  three  against;  one  State  was  equally  divided  in  its  representa- 
tion, and  three  were  absent.  And  so  it  was  lost,  as  by  the  rules  at^ 
le.'ist  two  thirds  of  the  thirteen  States  were  required  to  vote  for  it 
before  it  could  become  a  law. 


252  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

April,  1784,  and  afterwards  carried,  to  strike  out 
this  clause.  The  New  England  members  gave  a 
unanimous  vote  to  retain  that  clause  which  would 
have  established  slavery  in  what  is  now  Ohio,  Mich- 
igan, Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  the  recognized  leader  of  Con- 
gress in  1783-4,  though  he  had  able  men  for  rivals. 
On  the  10th  of  March,  1785,  Congress  appointed 
him  Minister  to  France,  to  succeed  Dr.  Franklin. 
Indeed,  he  had  three  times  before  been  offered  the 
same  office,  and  had  declined  it,  sometimes  in  con- 
sequence of  the  feeble  health  of  his  wife :  now  she 
had  become  loosed  from  her  frail  body. 

III.     As   Diplomatist  in  Europe.     1785-1789. 

I  shall  not  discourse  at  any  length  on  his  services 
abroad.  He  was  a  skilful  diplomatist.  His  great 
knowledge,  his  admirable  sagacity,  his  conciliatory 
spirit,  and  his  good  manners,  helped  to  accomplish 
what  he  sought.  He  attended  to  the  usual  routine 
of  a  Minister's  duties,  but  no  great  services  were 
to  be  accomplished.  He  returned  to  his  country,  on 
leave  of  absence,  in  1789.  A  singular  reception 
awaited  him  at  home.  When  he  came  to  Monticello 
his  slaves  took  him  from  his  coach,  and  bore  him 
in  their  arms  to  the  house.*  A  singular  mode  of 
riding  for  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 

*  Tucker,  i.  337. 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  253 

pendence !  But  it  proved  that  if  a  master,  he  was 
kind  and  beloved !  Jefferson  was  pleased  with  a 
diplomatic  position,  but  President  Washington  had 
destined  him  to  higher  services. 

IV.  In  the  Executive  of  the  United  States.  1790- 
1809. 

When  Jefferson  returned  from  France  the  Con- 
stitution was  adopted,  the  new  officers  chosen,  the 
Government  organized.  At  first  he  did  not  like  the 
Constitution.  It  made  the  Central  Government  too 
strong,  excessively  curtailing  the  power  of  the  in- 
dividual States.  It  would  allow  the  same  man  to 
be  chosen  President  again  and  again,  to  the  end  of 
his  life.  It  contained  no  Bill  of  Eights,  declaring 
what  powers  the  States  and  the  individual  citizens 
did  not  delegate  to  the  General  Government.  Jef- 
ferson was  a  Democrat,  and  the  Constitution  was 
not  the  work  of  Democrats ;  in  fact  Franklin  and 
Madison  were  the  only  men  of  considerable  ability 
who  represented  the  Democracy  in  forming  the 
Constitution.  But  after  it  was  adopted  he  came 
earnestly  to  its  defence,  and  held  three  several  Exec- 
utive offices  under  it. 

1.  He  was  Secretary  of  State  from  March  21, 
1790,  to  December  31,  1793. 

He  did  not  wish  to  accept  the  office,  preferring  his 
Diplomatic  Mission  at  Paris.  But  Washington  so- 


254  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

licited  him  to  accept,  and  he  entered  on  the  duties 
of  the  Secretaryship.  Hamilton  was  Secretary  of 
Treasury,  Kuox  of  War  —  both  Federalists,  whom 
Jefferson  accuses  of  leaning  towards  Monarchy. 
Edmund  Randolph  was  Attorney  General,  and  Jeffer- 
son Secretary  of  State  —  both  Democrats.  Jeffer- 
son and  Hamilton  were  commonly  on  opposite  sides. 
They  contended  on  measures  and  on  principles,  then 
quarrelled,  and  finally  hated  one  another  with  all 
their  might. 

Jefferson  opposed  the  great  measures  of  Washing- 
ton's Administration ;  the  Funding  Bill,  the  As- 
sumption of  State  Debts,  and  the  establishment  of 
the  United  States  Bank.  Here,  I  think,  he  was 
right;  but  the  measures  prevailed,  and  were  popu- 
lar with  the  wealthy  and  educated  classes  in  all  the 
Northern  States.  But  he  opposed  the  Military 
Academy,  the  Coast  Fortification,  and  the  Navy. 
He  especially  disliked  the  Navy,  and  opposed  the 
measures  of  the  President  to  raise  it  to  any  footing 
efficient  for  War.  He  took  sides  with  France,  and 
favored  her  encroachments.  He  was  willing  to  allow 
Mr.  Genet,  the  Minister  of  France,  to  violate  the 
neutrality  of  our  soil,  to  enlist  soldiers  in  our  towns, 
and  to  fit  out  and  commission  privateers  in  our  har- 
bors. He  disliked  England,  and,  in  fact,  had  a  dis- 
trust and  fear  of  that  Nation,  which  were  only  too 
well  founded.  Thus  he  inclined  to  a  war  with  Eng- 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  255 

land,  and  resolutely  resisted  some  of  her  pretensions 
with  manly  spirit.  He  supported  men  who  abused 
Washington  and  the  Government,  of  which  Jefferson 
himself  was  a  part. 

Washington  became  more  and  more  anti-democratic 
in  his  administration,  put  more  and  more  confidence 
in  Hamilton,  whose  active  mind,  invasive  will,  and 
skill  in  organizing  men  had  an  undue  influence  over 
the  President,  then  waxing  feeble,  and  becoming 
averse  to  business.  Jefferson  found  his  power  di- 
minishing in  the  Cabinet,  and  not  growing  in  the 
country.  At  the  end  of  1793  he  withdrew  from 
his  post,  and  sat  down  on  his  estate  at  Monticello 
to  repair  his  private  fortunes,  already  somewhat 
shattered.* 

Out  of  office  he  was  the  head  of  the  Democratic 
party  even  more  than  while  in  it,  and  the  centre  of 
the  opposition  to  Washington  and  his  administra- 
tion. His  house  was  the  headquarters  of  the  oppo- 
sition. His  letters  show  that  his  heart  was  not  at 
Moiiticello,  nor  his  mind  busy  with  maize,  tobacco, 
and  breeding  slaves.  He  professed  to  desire  no 
office.  He  would  live  in  private,  and  arrange  his 
plantations  and  his  books. 

But  when  Washington  was  about  to  withdraw 
from  office,  in  1796,  Jefferson  was  the  Democratic 
candidate  for  the  Presidency.  He  was  defeated. 

*  Tucker,  i.  466-470. 


256  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

John  Adams  had  seventy-one  votes,  —  one  more  than 
a  majority ;  Jefferson,  sixty-eight,  —  two  less  than 
enough.  John  Adams  represented  the  Constitu- 
tional Party,  which  included  the  wealth,  the  educa- 
tion, the  farming  and  the  mercantile  interests,  and 
the  inventive  skill  of  the  Nation.  Jefferson  was  the 
champion  of  the  Progressive  Party,  which  was  com- 
posed of  a  few  men  of  genius,  of  ideas,  and  strength, 
but  chiefly  made  up  of  the  lower  masses  of  men,  with 
whom  the  instincts  are  stronger  than  reflection,  and 
the  rich  slaveholders  of  the  South,  who  liked  not  the 
constraints  of  law. 

2.  While  Jefferson  was  Vice-President,  his  only 
function  was  to  preside  in  the  Senate,  where  the 
Federalists  had  a  decided  majority.  President 
Adams  disliked  him,  shunned  him,  did  not  consult 
him  about  public  affairs.  Indeed,  the  political  dif- 
ference between  them  was  immense.  Their  systems 
were  antagonistic.  Jefferson  looked  with  the  eyes 
of  a  partisan  on  some  of  the  measures  of  Adams's 
administration,  and  with  righteous  contempt  on  the 
"  Alien  and  Sedition  "  Law,  and  other  despotic  meas- 
ures. But  in  these  he  must  have  read  the  prophecy 
that  his  opponents  would  soon  fall,  to  rise  never 
more.  He  contended  vehemently  against  the  party 
in  power. 

In  1798  he  said,  "Our  General  Government,  in 
nine  or  ten  years,  has  become  more  arbitrary  than 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  257 

even  that  of  England,  and  has  swallowed  up  more 
of  the  public  liberty."  *  He  drew  up  the  celebrated 
Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1798,  which  declared  sev- 
eral Acts  of  Congress  "null  and  void;"  "not  law, 
but  altogether  void,  and  of  no  force ; "  and  called 
on  the  other  States,  within  their  bounds,  to  nullify 
them,  and  all  such  unconstitutional  acts.  Such  res- 
olutions looked  revolutionary.  Alas,  they  were 
only  too  just !  But  Kentucky  was  not  quite  ready 
for  such  strong  measures,  and  modified  the  resolu- 
tions. Presently  Madison  presented  the  same  doc- 
trine in  the  Virginia  Resolutions  of  1798.  Both 
papers  came  from  the  Democratic  spirit  of  Jeffer- 
son, and  the  seeming  dangers  were  yet  unavoidable. 
For  the  acts  they  opposed  were  about  as  unjust 
as  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  of  1850.  Jefferson  feared 
centralized  power,  which  always  degenerates  into 
despotism.  He  loved  local  self-government,  and 
did  not  apprehend  that  it  would  run  to  license,  as 
it  yet  often  has  done,  and  now  does  in  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia,  and  Alabama.  He  was  afraid  only  of 
the  concentrated  despotism  of  the  few,  not  knowing 
that  the  many  may^  also  become  tyrants. 

He  watched  with  a  keen  eye  the  increasing  trou- 
bles of  the  Federal  party,  the  hostility  of  its  leaders 
to  the  President,  for  whose  office  he  was  the  chief 
candidate  of  the  Deinocracj7.  He  grew  more  and 

*  Tucker,  ii.  43. 

17 


258  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

more  bold,  and  confident  of  success.  Indeed,  the 
ultimate  victory  of  his  partisans  was  never  doubtful. 
They  embodied  the  Nation's  instinct  of  progress, 
though  in  no  high  moral  form. 

The  Federal  party  deserted  the  ablest  and  the 
most  honest  of  their  great  men.  John  Adams  was 
defeated.  Jefferson  and  Burr  had  the  same  number 
of  Electoral  votes.  It  came  to  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives to  decide  who  should  be  President.  They 
voted  by  States.  The  Democracy  voted  for  Jeffer- 
son, the  Federalists  preferred  Aaron  Burr.  Thirty- 
five  times  they  balloted  without  choice.  On  the 
17th  of  February  (1801),  —  on  the  seventh  day  of 
the  ballot,  and  at  the  thirty-sixth  trial, — Jefferson 
was  chosen.  Burr  was  Vice-President,  and  the  Fed- 
eral party  dead.  Rich  in  great  men,  who  did  noble 
service  in  their  day,  it  had  done  its  work,  and  it 
died  when  it  was  needed  no  longer.  Let  you  and 
me  do  justice  to  its  great  merits  and  to  its  great 
men,  but  never  share  in  its  distrust  of  the  People 
and  of  the  dearest  instincts  of  Humanity. 

3.  Jefferson  became  President  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1801,  and  held  the  office  eight  years. 

It  was  a  fortunate  time  for  the  chief  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  to  enter  upon  his  power.  The  Federal- 
ists had  taken  the  responsibility  of  organizing  the 
Government,  providing  for  the  payment  of  debts, 
levying  taxes,  making  treaties  of  alliance  and  com- 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  259 

merce  with  foreign  states.  The  Democracy  had  only 
to  criticise  the  faults  of  their  rivals ;  they  were  not 
obliged  to  share  the  blame  of  what  was  unpopular. 
Besides,  the  storm  of  war  which  had  threatened 
between  the  United  States  and  either  England  or 
France,  had  been  blown  off  by  the  powerful  breath 
of  Adams.  The  Nation  was  at  peace,  the  revenue 
abundant,  industry  more  various  and  successful  than 
ever  before.  Jefferson  was  the  most  popular  man  in 
his  party  ;  perhaps,  also,  himself  the  ablest.  Certain- 
ly no  Democrat  was  endowed  with  such  versatile 
skill.  There  was  no  longer  any  hope  of  reconciling 
the  two  parties  as  such,  or  of  reconciling  the  Federal 
leaders.  John  Adams  had  gone  down.  Washington 
himself  could  not  have  breasted  the  flood  of  waters 
for  a  week  longer ;  the  great  swollen  sea  of  the  De- 
mocracy would  have  overwhelmed  him,  and,  with  its 
irresistible  surge,  would  have  borne  some  more 
fortunate  rival  far  up  the  strand. 

The  Federal  party  was  swallowed  up.  Jefferson's 
policy  was  not  to  array  the  hostile  parties,  but, 
breaking  up  all  parties,  to  gather  to  himself  the 
mass  of  the  people.  His  Inaugural  Address,  very 
handsomely  written,  was  a  proclamation  of  peace. 
*  We  are  all  Republicans,  we  are  all  Federalists," 
said  he.  Nothing  could  be  more  timely. 

He  selected  a  good  Cabinet.  The  Mates  were  all 
Democrats.  He  was  Master,  not  to  be  overcome 


260  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

by  his  councillors,  as  Adams,  and  even  as  Washing- 
ton, had  often  been.  He  did  not  change  them  in 
eight  years :  they  were  a  unit.  He  removed  the 
Federal  leaders  from  all  the  most  important  offices. 
How  else  could  he  get  rid  of  them?  "Few  die," 
said  he,  "  and  none  resign."  But  he  intended  not 
more  than  twenty  removals  in  all.  Of  course  those 
who  went  out  looked  grim  at  those  who  came  in,  lean 
with  expectation.  Jefferson  would  have  rotation  in 
office. 

Here  are  the  six  chief  acts  of  his  administration. 

1.  He  abandoned  the  defences  of  the  country. 
Upon  the  ground  of  expediency,  he  opposed  the 
fortification  of  the  principal  harbors,  and  he  consid- 
ered the  establishment  of  a  Military  Academy  not 
within  the  specific  powers  assigned  to  Congress. 
While  he  was  Vice-President,  he  and  his  Republican 
party  had  vehemently  opposed  a  Navy,  as  being  alto- 
gether unsuited  to  the  means  of  the  United  States, 
and  as  being  likely  to  involve  the  country  in  war. 
In  this  he  opposed  and  obstructed  the  policy  very 
much  favored  by  Mr.  Adams.  And,  consistently 
with  these  principles,  when  he  himself  came  into 
power,  he  neglected  the  Army  and  Navy,  and  insist- 
ed upon  building  two  hundred  and  fifty  gunboats, 
which  should  cost  but  five  thousand  dollars  each, 
instead  of  constructing  larger  and  more  efficient  ves- 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  261 

sels,  which  would  require  the  permanent  employ- 
ment of  naval  officers  and  seamen.  It  was  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson's plan,  that  in  time  of  peace  these  gunboats 
should  be  hauled  up  under  sheds,  erected  for  the 
purpose  on  the  sea-shore  ;  and  that  in  war  time  they 
should  be  fitted  for  service,  and  manned  with  a  mar- 
itime militia,  enlisted  temporarily  for  the  purpose. 
This  scheme  was  violently  attacked,  and  in  fact  it 
proved  a  failure.  Mr.  Jefferson  employed  Thomas 
Paine  to  write  in  defence  of  it.  He  certainly  wrote 
very  ingeniously,  but,  in  spite  of  his  logic,  the  pub- 
.lic  and  the  men  of  experience  remained  incredulous, 
and  "  when,  soon  afterwards,  many  of  the  gunboats 
were  driven  ashore  in  a  tempest,  or  were  otherwise 
destroyed,  no  one  seemed  to  regard  their  loss  as  a 
misfortune,  nor  has  any  attempt  been  since  made  to 
replace  them."  In  these  things  he  made  great  mis- 
takes, partly  because  he  limited  his  views  from  ill- 
conceived  motives  of  economy,  and  partly  because 
of  a  wise  fear  of  laying  the  foundations  of  great  and 
permanent  military  and  naval  establishments.  And 
thus  it  was  that  he  left  his  country's  commerce  and 
seamen  defenceless  on  the  ocean. 

2.  He  promoted  the  repeal  of  the  Judiciary  Act. 

This  swept  off  forever  Mr.  Adams's  w  Midnight 
Judges,"  *  and  established  an  admirable  precedent, 

*  Jefferson  had  always  looked  upon  this  act  of  Mr.  Adams  as 
personally  unkind  to  himself.  See  his  letter  from  Washington,  June 
13,  1804,  to  Mrs.  Adams.  Randall,  iii.  105. 


262  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

•which    will   have    its    due   weight    at    some   future 
day. 

From  his  earliest  days  of  public  life  he  had  always 
known  that  judges  were  but  men,  and  that  they 
were  affected  with  weakness  and  infirmity,  with 
prejudice  and  party  spirit,  like  as  other  men  are.* 
In  1778  he  had  attempted  to  provide,  that  in  the 
Chancery  Court  of  Virginia,  all  matters  of  fact  should 
be  tried  by  a  jury,  in  the  same  manner  as  in  the 
courts  of  law.  But  here  he  was  defeated  by  an 
adroit  amendment  proposed  by  Mr.  Pendleton.f  It 
was  one  of  his  objections  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  that  the  decisions  of  the  judges  of 

*  Works,  vii.  178.  Our  judges  are  as  honest  as  other  men  are, 
and  not  more  so.  ...  Their  maxim  is,  Boni  judicis  ampliare 
jurisdictionem. 

Works,  iii.  81.  To  the  Abbe  Arnoud,  Paris,  July  19,  1789.  "  We 
all  know  that  permanent  judges  acquire  an  esprit  de  corps ;  that 
being  known,  they  are  liable  to  be  tempted  by  bribery;  that  they  are 
misled  by  favor,  by  relationship,  by  a  spirit  of  party,  by  a  devotion 
to  legislative  or  executive  power ;  that  it  is  better  to  leave  a  cause  to 
the  decision  of  cross  and  pile  than  to  that  of  a  judge  biassed  to  one 
side ;  and  that  the  decision  of  twelve  honest  men  gives  still  a  better 
hope  of  right  than  cross  and  pile  does.  It  is  in  the  power,  therefore, 
of  the  juries,  if  they  think  permanent  judges  are  under  any  bias 
whatever,  in  any  cause,  to  take  on  themselves  to  judge  the  law  as 
well  as  the  fact.  They  never  exercise  this  power,  but  when  they 
suspect  partiality  in  the  judges;  and  by  the  exercise  of  this  power 
they  have  been  the  firmest  bulwarks  of  English  liberty.  Were  I 
called  upon  to  decide  whether  the  people  had  best  be  omitted  in  the 
legislative  or  judiciary  departments,  I  would  say  it  is  better  to  leave 
them  out  of  the  legislative." 

f  Works,  i.  37. 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  263 

the  National  Courts  were  not  subject  to  the  same 
qualified  negative  of  the  Executive  power  as  are  all 
the  acts  of  Congress.*  In  his  Autobiography  he 
writes,  "Nothing  could  be  more  salutary  there  [in 
England]  than  a  change  to  the  tenure  [of  the  judges] 
of  good  behavior,  and  the  question  of  good  be- 
havior left  to  the  vote  of  a  simple  majority  in  the 
two  Houses  of  Parliament."  f  In  his  first  annual 
message,  as  President,  to  Congress,  he  says  that  the 
papers  he  lays  before  them  will  enable  them  "  to 
judge  of  the  proportion  which  the  institution  [Unit- 
.ed  States  Supreme  Court]  bears  to  the  business  it 
has  to  perform."  J  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Kerchival  § 
he  objects  to  the  independence  of  the  Judiciary,  and 
affirms  that  they  ought  to  have  been  elected.  "  The 
judges  of  Connecticut,"  says  he,  "have  been  chosen 
by  the  people  for  nearly  two  centuries,  and  I  believe 
that  there  has  never  hardly  been  an  instance  of 
change."  He  proceeds,  and  remarks  that  "  if  preju- 
dice is  still  to  prevail  .  .  .  against  the  vital  prin- 
ciple of  periodical  election  of  judges  by  the  people, 
...  let  us  retain  the  power  of  removal  on  the 
concurrence  of  the  executive  and  legislative  branch- 
es, and  nomination  by  the  Executive  alone.  Nomi- 
nation to  office  is  an  Executive  function.  To  leave 
it  to  the  legislature,  as  we  do,  is  a  violation  of 

*  Works,  ii.  329.  t  Works,  i.  81. 

J  Works,  viii..  13.  §  Works,  vii.  12. 


264  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

the  principle  of  the  separation  of  powers."  Also,  in 
1799,  he  writes,*  w  The  judiciary  is  alone  and  single- 
handed  in  its  assaults  upon  the  Constitution,  but  its 
assaults  are  more  sure  and  deadly,  as  from  an  agent 
seemingly  passive  and  unassuming ;  "  and  to  Judge 
Johnson, f  "This  practice  [of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States]  of  travelling  out  of  the  case 
to  prescribe  what  the  law  would  be  in  a  moot  case 
not  before  the  court,  is  very  irregular  and  very 
censurable.  ...  In  the  Marbury  Case,  the  Chief 
Justice  went  on  to  lay  down  what  the  law  would 
have  been  had  the  court  jurisdiction  of  the  case. 
.  .  .  The  object  was  clearly  to  instruct  any  other 
court,  having  the  jurisdiction,  what  they  should  do 
if  Marbury  should  apply  to  them."  And  to  Mr. 
Barry,}  in  1822,  he  writes,  "We  already  see  the 
power  installed  for  life,  responsible  to  no  authority 
(for  impeachment  is  not  even  a  scarecrow),  advan- 
cing with  a  noiseless  and  steady  pace  to  the  great 
object  of  consolidation."  To  Edward  Livingston,  in 
1825, §  "  One  single  object,  if  your  provision  attains 
it,  will  entitle  you  to  the  endless  gratitude  of  society, 
— that  of  restraining  judges  from  usurping  legislation. 
With  no  body  of  men  is  this  restraint  more  wanting 
than  with  the  judges  of  what  is  called  our  General 
Government,  but  what  I  call  our  Foreign  department. 

*  Tucker,  ii.  436.  t  Works,  vii.  295. 

J  Works,  vii.  256.  §  Works,  vii.  403. 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  265 

They  are  practising  on  the  Constitution  by  infer- 
ences. .  .  .  This  member  of  the  government  was 
at  first  considered  the  most  harmless  and  help- 
less of  all  its  organs.  But  it  has  proved  that  the 
power  of  declaring  what  the  law  is,  ad  libitum,  by 
sapping  and  mining,  slowly  and  without  alarm,  the 
foundations  of  the  Constitution,  can  do  what  open 
force  would  not  dare  to  attempt."  There  are  many 
other  better  known  and  more  frequently  quoted  pas- 
sages to  the  same  purpose.*  And  to  show  that  Mr. 
Jefferson's  fear  of  the  despotism  of  the  Judiciary  was 
•by  no  means  unfounded,  read  a  letter  from  a  dis- 
tinguished Federalist,  Oliver  Wolcott  (then  Secre- 
tary of  the  United  States  Treasury),  to  his  friend 
Fisher  Ames,  which  bears  date  29th  of  December, 
1799:  "There  is  no  way  [for  the  General  Govern- 
ment] to  combat  the  State  opposition  but  by  an 
efficient  and  extended  organization  of  judges,  magis- 
trates, and  other  civil  officers."  Thus  it  seems  that 
Mr.  Jefferson  was,  during  his  whole  political  life, 
well  aware  of  those  tendencies  which  would  make 
the  Judiciary,  to  use  his  own  language,  "a  despotic 
branch." 

3.  He  caused  to  be  abolished  all  the  internal  and 
direct  taxes  which  had,  before  his  Administration, 

*  For  these  and  other  passages,  see  Tucker,  ii.  112.  Works,  iv. 
661 ;  v.  649 ;  vi.  462 ;  vii.  134,  178,  192,  199,  216,  278,  322,  403. 
Kandall,  iii.  124,  636. 


266  THOMAS    JEFFEL1SON. 

been  levied  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 
TJiey  consisted  of  taxes,  or  excise,  on  stills,  domes- 
tic spirits,  refined  sugars,  licenses  to  keep  shops, 
sales  at  auction,  and  on  carriages,  stamped  vellum, 
parchment,  &c.  They  were  abolished  after  the  first 
day  of  June,  1802.  Meantime,  and  during  their  col- 
lection, they  had  excited  such  opinions  and  feelings 
as  were  expressed  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  letter  to  Mr. 
Madison,  dated  December  28,  1794:  "The  excise 
law  is  an  infernal  one.  The  first  error  was  to  admit 
it  by  the  Constitution ;  the  second,  to  act  on  that  ad- 
mission ;  the  third,  and  last,  will  be  to  make  it  the 
instrument  of  dismembering  the  Union,  and  setting  us 
all  afloat  to  choose  what  part  of  it  we  will  adhere  to. 
.  .  .  The  detestation  of  the  excise  law  is  universal, 
and  has  now  associated  to  it  a  detestation  of  the 
Government,  and  [the  information]  that  a  separation 
which,  perhaps,  was  a  very  distant  and  problematical 
event,  is  now  near  and  certain,  and  determined  in 
the  mind  of  every  man."  These  taxes  had  after- 
wards caused  the  famous  Whiskey  Insurrection  in 
Pennsylvania  in  1794,  which  at  that  time  seemed  as 
seriously  to  threaten  the  stability  of  our  Union  as 
any  political  disturbances  that  have  since  taken  place. 
The  entire  amount  which  these  excise  and  direct 
taxes  brought  into  the  treasury  of  the  United  States 
was  but  six  hundred  thousand  dollars  per  annum  ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  gross  revenue  was  one  million  of 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  267 

dollars,  and  the  cost  of  its  collection  was  four  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  As  Mr.  Jefferson  said,  "By 
suppressing  at  once  the  whole  internal  taxes,  we 
abolish  three  fourths  of  the  offices  now  existing 
and  spread  over  the  laud."  It  was  certainly  a  wise 
measure  of  administration  and  pacification. 

4.  He   pardoned   all   persons  in  jail  for  offences 
against  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  and  discontin- 
ued all  process  against  men  who  were  waiting  trial 
on  charges  of  breaking  those  laws.     He  was  clearly 
of  opinion  that  these  wicked  laws  were  unconstitu- 
tional, and  he  went  forward  promptly  and  boldly  to 
remedy  the  injustice  which  they  had  so  uselessly  oc- 
casioned. 

5.  He  secured  the  acquisition  of  the  territory  of 
Louisiana  by  negotiation  and  purchase. 

This  was  a  success  of  the  greatest  importance  to 
the  security  and  to  the  prosperity  of  this  country. 
And  by  no  one  could  it  have  been  attained  with 
more  foresight  and  skill,  or  by  more  wise  use  of 
fortunate  opportunities,  than  were  exhibited  by  Mr. 
Jefferson  before  and  during  the  events  of  the  nego- 
tiation. 

April  18,  1802,  President  Jefferson  writes  to 
Robert  R.  Livingston,  "  The  cession  of  Louisiana  and 
the  Floridas  by  Spain  to  France  works  most  sorely 
on  the  United  States.  ...  It  reverses  our  political 
relations,  and  will  form  a  new  epoch  in  our  political 


268  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

course.  .  .  .  We  have  ever  looked  to  her  [France] 
as  our  natural  friend.  .  .  .  There  is  on  the  globe 
one  single  spot,  the  possessor  of  which  is  our  natural 
and  habitual  enemy.  It  is  New  Orleans,  through 
which  the  produce  of  three  eighths  of  our  territory 
must  pass.  .  .  .  France,  placing  herself  in  that 
door,  at  once  assumes  to  us  the  attitude  of  defiance. 
Spain  might  have  retained  it  quietly  for  years.  Her 
pacific  dispositions,  her  feeble  state,  would  induce 
her  to  increase  our  facilities  there.  .  .  .  Not  so  cau 
it  ever  be  in  the  hands  of  France.  The  impetuosity 
of  her  temper,  the  energy  and  restlessness  of  her 
character,  .  .  .  render  it  impossible  that  France  and 
the  United  States  can  continue  long  friends  when 
they  meet  in  so  irritable  a  position.  The  day  that 
France  takes  possession  of  New  Orleans,  .  .  .  from 
that  moment  we  must  marry  ourselves  to  the  British 
fleet  and  nation.  We  must  turn  all  our  attention 
to  a  maritime  force,  for  which  our  resources  place 
us  on  very  high  ground." 

Such  was  his  statement  of  the  position  of  affairs  at 
the  time  when  he  so  wisely  initiated  the  measures 
which  were  to  secure  the  vast  territories  of  the  West 
to  the  United  States.  On  his  part  everything  was 
ready  and  prepared  to  receive  the  gift  of  what  was 
then  for  the  most  part  a  wilderness,  but  which  he 
knew  would  soon  become  of  inestimable  importance 
to  the  peace  and  welfare  of  his  country.  Very  quick- 


THOMAS     JEFFERSON.  260 

ly,  sooner  thuu  he  could  have  hoped  or  dreamed,  the 
situation  changed.  First  Consul  Bonaparte  suddenly 
decided  to  break  the  Peace  of  Amiens  with  England. 
As  a  preparation  for  so  doing,  and  to  raise  means  for 
his  immense  projects,  it  became  necessary  for  him 
to  make  sale  of  Louisiana  to  the  party  who  would 
pay  him  the  most  for  it ;  for  he  well  knew  that  such 
property  as  France  had  in  Louisiana  would  not  be 
worth  two  months'  purchase  after  his  war  should  be 
declared.  Therefore  it  was  that,  in  the  early  sum- 
mer of  1803  (the  treaty  having  been  concluded  30th 
of  April  of  that  year) ,  President  Jefferson  was  able 
to  accept  the  congratulations  of  his  friends  on  the 
acquisition  of  Louisiana.  "  The  territory  acquired," 
says  he,  "as  it  includes  all  the  waters  of  the  Missouri 
and  Mississippi,  has  more  than  doubled  the  area  of 
the  United  States." 

In  this  connection  Mr.  Jefferson  has  been  much 
blamed  for  the  addition  of  Louisiana  to  the  terri- 
tories of  the  United  States  without  any  constitu- 
tional authority.  It  was  his  own  opinion,  never 
concealed  by  him,  that  an  amendment  of  the  Con- 
stitution was  necessary  to  consummate  the  effect  of 
his  negotiations.  The  same  idea  frequently  ap- 
peared in  his  correspondence,  and  even  the  forms 
of  the  amendments  to  the  Constitution  proposed  by 
him,  to  authorize  the  acquisitions  of  Louisiana  and 
Florida,  were  more  than  once  recorded.  The 


270  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

importance  of  promptly  concluding  this  valuable 
purchase,  or  the  overruling  influence  of  political 
friends,  seems  to  have  extinguished  these  constitu- 
tional scruples,  which  were  really  and  earnestly  enter- 
tained by  him.  It  is  the  more  to  be  regretted  that  he 
who  had  boasted,  "I  never  had  an  opinion  in  "politics 
which  I  was  afraid  to  own,"  should  not,  on  this 
important  occasion,  and  when  President  of  the  United 
States,  have  required  the  respect  which  he  himself 
thought  due  to  the  Constitution,  to  have  been  ob- 
served. It  would  have  given  the  weight  of  his  great 
name  to  an  honest  precedent,  and  it  might  have  made 
impossible  the  juggling  tricks  of  diplomacy  whereby 
Texas  afterwards  became  annexed  to  the  United 
States.* 

*  Works,  iv.  506.  "  When  I  consider  that  the  limits  of  the  United 
States  are  precisely  fixed  by  the  treaty  of  1783,  that  the  Constitu- 
tion declares  itself  to  be  made  for  the  United  States,  I  cannot  help 
believing  the  intention  was  not  to  permit  Congress  to  admit  into  the 
Union  new  States  which  should  be  formed  out  of  the  Territory  for 
which,  and  under  whose  authority  alone,  they  were  then  acting.  I 
do  not  believe  it  was  meant  they  might  receive  England,  Ireland, 
Holland,  &c.,  into  it,  which  would  be  the  case  on  your  construction. 
When  an  instrument  admits  two  constructions,  ...  I  prefer  that 
which  is  safe  and  precise.  .  .  .  Our  peculiar  security  is  in  the 
possession  of  a  written  Constitution."  Also  see  iv.  503,  his  letter 
to  the  Secretary  of  State,  August  25,  1803,  in  which  he  proposes  the 
following  form  of  "  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  necessary  in  the 
case  of  Louisiana :  "  "  Louisiana,  as  ceded  by  France  to  the  United 
States,  is  made  a  part  of  the  United  States.  Its  white  inhabitants 
shall  be  citizens,  and  stand,  as  to  their  rights  and  obligations,  on  the 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  271 

6.  He  imposed  the  Embargo  in  1807. 

This  measure  also  is  to  be  considered  the  act  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  in  a  particular  manner,  and  was  in- 
itiated by  him  in  his  special  message  of  December  18, 
1807.*  England,  predominant  at  sea,  had  destroyed 
the  French  naval  power,  and  to  aggravate  the  French 
commercial  embarrassments  to  the  utmost,  had  re- 
sorted to  extreme  and  odious  pretensions,  claiming 
the  penalties  of  blockade  against  neutral  vessels  pro- 
ceeding to  or  from  seaports  where  no  actual  block- 
ade was  maintained  by  her.  In  the  end,  a  contention 
of  Decrees,  issued  by  the  Emperor  of  France,  and  of 
Orders  in  Council,  proclaimed  by  the  government  of 
England,  had  brought  things  to  such  a  pass  that  the 
neutral  vessels  of  the  United  States  could  not  con- 
tinue their  established  commerce  in  any  direction 
without  being  subject  to  capture  either  by  the  naval 
powers  and  privateers  of  England  or  of  France.  If 
they  made  any  voyage  to  England  or  to  English 
possessions,  or  allowed  themselves  to  be  searched 

same  footing  with  other  citizens  of  the  United  States  in  analogous 
situations." 

Works,  iv.  p.  500.  August  12,  1803,  he  wrote  to  Judge  Brecken- 
ridge,  "  The  Constitution  has  made  no  provision  for  our  holding 
foreign  territory,  still  less  for  incorporating  foreign  nations  into  our 
Union.  The  Executive,  in  seizing  the  fugitive  occurrence  which  so 
much  advances  the  good  of  their  country,  have  done  an  act  beyond 
the  Constitution." 

*  Works,  viii.  89. 


272  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

< 

or  visited  by  any  English  vessel  of  war,  the  Emperor 
of  France  claimed  the  right  to  capture  and  confiscate 
them.  If  they  made  any  voyage  to  any  part  of  the 
Continent  of  Europe,  the  whole  of  which  was  then 
under  the  domination  of  France,  in  that  case  the  in- 
numerable cruisers  of  England  intervened,  and  made 
what  they  called  lawful  prize  of  American  ships. 
The  situation  was  such  that  it  seemed  to  force  a  war 
upon  the  country,  for  which  it  was  by  no  means 
prepared,  and  which  it  could  in  no  way  afford. 
And,  moreover,  even  had  America  decided  to  de- 
clare a  war,  the  dilemma  was  serious,  whether  it 
ought  to  be  declared  against  France  or  against  Eng- 
land. The  action  of  each  Government  had  been 
towards  us  equally  aggressive  in  principle  and  almost 
equally  ruinous  in  practice.  But  France  had  been  to 
us,  during  the  Revolutionary  struggles  of  thirty  years 
before,  our  stanch  and  profitable  friend,  and  neither 
the  ill  treatment  of  her  more  recent  Governments,  nor 
the  haughty  injustice  of  some  of  their  powerful  min- 
isters in  promoting  the  unjust  confiscation  of  our 
ships,  nor  the  venal  corruption  of  others  in  holding 
out  their  hands  to  our  envoys  for  secret  bribes,  could 
make  our  country  forget  how  great  was  our  debt  of 
gratitude  to  France.  Yet,  on  the  other  part,  the 
temptation  was  great  to  uphold  the  policy  of  Eng- 
land. By  so  doing,  a  very  considerable  part  of  our 
commerce  would  have  been  preserved  with  England, 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  273 

and  we  should  have  enjoyed  a  considerable  share  of 
the  English  carrying  trade.  And  this  was  the  view 
taken  by  the  Eastern  and  Northern  States,  by  leading 
Federalists,  and  by  all  those  who  had  great  sympathy 
with  England  as  the  champion  of  Liberty,  and  the 
efficient  leader  of  the  combination  which  she  alone 
could  maintain  against  the  enlarging  tyranny  of 
Bonaparte.  Thus  it  was,  our  commerce  extended, 
our  vessels  captured,  both  on  seas  and  in  port,  by 
authorities  both  English  and  French,  under  pretences 
which  had  no  support  from  the  law  of  nations,  or  any 
maritime  law. 

Mr.  Jefferson  found  the  solution  of  all  these  dif- 
ficulties in  the  Embargo,  which  forbade  to  American 
ships  and  merchants  all  foreign  commerce  whatever. 
Under  the  circumstances  it  may  be  justified  as  a  wise 
measure  of  temporary  relief  and  preparation.  But 
the  hurried  manner  in  which  it  was  forced  upon  the 
country,  and  the  unnecessarily  long  period  of  its 
continuance,  until  their  distresses  had  nearly  com- 
pelled the  commercial  States  to  rebellion  and  seces- 
sion, is  not  easily  to  be  justified,  nor  would  in  any 
recent  times  have  been  considered  as  otherwise  than 
degrading  to  our  national  honor. 

On  the  10th  of  November,  1807,  the  ship  Horizon, 

which  had  been  stranded   on  the  French  coast    by 

stress  of  weather,  was  condemned  as  a  prize  by  the 

French  courts,  because  she  had  English  produce  on 

18 


274  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

board,  and  this  decree  was  upheld  and  justified  by 
the  French  Government.  The  day  after,  November 
11,  the  Order  in  Council  was  passed,  by  which  Great 
Britain  prohibited  all  trade  whatever  with  France, 
or  with  her  allies ;  that  is  to  say,  with  the  whole 
Continent  of  Europe.  Immediately  on  receipt  of 
intelligence  of  these  facts,  on  the  18th  of  December, 
1807,  Mr.  Jefferson  sent  to  Congress  his  message 
recommending  the  Embargo.  The  bill  was  passed 
though  the  Senate,  with  closed  doors,  after  only  four 
hours'  debate.  It  was  also  forced  through  the  House 
of  Representatives  in  like  manner,  though  not  with 
equal  speed,  and  became  a  law  on  the  22d  of  Decem- 
ber. No  notice  was  given,  nor  was  any  opportunity 
for  consultation  or  explanation  afforded  to  the  numer- 
ous merchants  and  ship-owners  who  were  so  deeply 
interested  in  the  measure,  and  who  were  thus  de- 
prived of  their  lawful  business  and  property.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  despotic  and  arbitrary  Decrees 
dictated  by  the  French  Emperor  and  by  the  British 
Council,  were  to  be  imitated  by  the  first  President  of 
the  United  States  who  was  by  eminence  entitled  a 
"Republican  ;  "  with  this  difference  only,  that  where- 
as the  Decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan,  and  the  British 
Orders,  were  aimed  as  measures  of  retaliation  against 
enemies,  our  Embargo  was  so  directed  as  to  invade 
the  rights,  oppress  the  commerce,  and  destroy  the 
fortunes  and  subsistence  of  our  own  citizens. 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  275 

Mr.  Jefferson's  own  explanation  and  justification 
may  be -found  in  several  passages  of  his  writings.  In 
his  reply  to  an  address  of  Tammany  Society,  Febru- 
ary 29,  1808,*  less  than  ten  weeks  after  the  passage 
of  the  bill :  "  There  can  be  no  question  in  a  mind 
truly  American  whether  it  is  best  to  send  our  citizens 
and  property  into  certain  captivity,  and  then  wage 
war  for  their  recovery,  or  to  keep  them  at  home,  and 
to  turn  seriously  to  that  policy  which  plants  the 
manufacturer  and  the  husbandman  side  by  side,  and 
establishes  at  the  door  of  every  one  that  exchange  of 
mutual  labors  and  comforts  which  we  have  hitherto 
sought  in  distant  regions,  and  under  perpetual  risk  of 
broils  with  them."  f  November  21,  of  the  same  year, 
he  writes,  "  By  withdrawing  a  while  from  the  ocean 
we  have  suffered  some  loss,  but  we  have  gathered 
home  our  immense  capital.  .  .  .  We  have  saved 
our  seamen  from  the  jails  of  Europe,  and  gained  time 
to  prepare  for  defence.  .  .  .  Submission  and 
tribute,  if  that  be  our  choice,  are  no  baser  now  than 
at  the  date  of  the  Embargo." 

As  time  went  on  the  Embargo  became  exceedingly 
oppressive  to  all  the  commercial  interests  of  the 
country,  and  they  were  the  less  patient  of  its  effects 
because  of  the  sudden  manner  in  which  it  had  been 
forced  upon  them.  And  in  the  winter  of  1809,  after 
an  interview  with  John  Quincy  Adams,  which  con- 

*  Works,  viii.  127.  t  Works,  viii.  140. 


276  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

vinced  him  of  an  extreme  dissatisfaction  in  the  East- 
ern States,  bordering  upon  rebellion,  he  was  obliged 
to  submit  to  its  repeal,  which  took  effect  on  the  4th 
of  March  in  that  year.  As  to  its  repeal,  which  was 
carried  sorely  against  his  own  personal  opinion,  he 
writes  to  General  Armstrong,  on  the  5th  of  March,* 
"  After  fifteen  months'  continuance,  it  is  now  dis- 
continued, because,  losing  fifty  millions  of  dollars  of 
exports  annually  by  it,  it  costs  more  than  war,  which 
might  be  carried  on  for  a  third  of  that,  besides  what 
might  be  got  by  reprisal.  War,  therefore,  must  fol- 
low if  the  Edicts  are  not  repealed  before  the  meeting 
of  Congress  in  May."  And  also  to  Mr.  Short,  three 
days  later,  he  says,  K  Our  Embargo  has  worked  hard. 
It  has,  in  fact,  federalized  three  of  the  New  England 
States.  We  have  substituted  for  it  a  non-intercourse 
with  France  and  England  and  their  dependencies,  and 
a  trade  to  all  other  places.  It  is  probable  that  the  bel- 
ligerents will  take  our  vessels  under  their  Edicts,  in 
which  case  we  shall  probably  declare  war  against 
them." 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1809,  the  last  day  of  Mr. 
Jefferson's  Presidency,  the  Embargo  ceased  to  exist. 
Originally  it  may  have  been  a  measure  of  reasonable 
discretion,  but  it  had  been  protracted  so  as  to  have 
produced  great  distress  to  those  who  were  engaged 
in  commerce  and  in  shipping,  and  through  large 

*  Works,  v.  433. 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  277 

districts  of  country  it  had  cooled  the  friends  and 
heated  the  enemies  of  the  Democratic  party.  Mr. 
Jefferson  himself  could  never  have  realized  the  im- 
portance of  .commerce  and  navigation  to  his  country. 
In  October  13,  1785,  he  writes  to  Count  Hogendorp,* 
"You  ask  what  I  think  on  the  expediency  of  encoura- 
ging our  States  to  be  commercial.  Were  I  to  in- 
dulge my  own  theory,  I  should  wish  them  to  practise 
neither  commerce  nor  navigation,  but  to  stand,  with 
respect  to  Europe,  precisely  on  the  footing  of  China. 
We  should  thus  avoid  wars,  and  all  our  citizens  would 
be  husbandmen."  Such  ideas  he  seems  to  have  en- 
tertained, at  least  until  the  close  of  his  political  life ; 
nor  does  he  ever  appear  to  have  been  convinced  until 
his  interview  with  John  Quincy  Adams,  before  al- 
luded to,  of  the  extreme  and  intolerable  pressure  with 
which  his  Embargo  weighed  down  some  of  the  great- 
est and  most  important  interests  of  his  country. 

Mr.  Jefferson's  public  life  was  now  brought  to  a 
close.  He  had  attended  the  inauguration  of  his  friend, 
James  Madison,  his  successor  in  the  Presidency,  and 
still  a  vigorous  man  of  sixty-six  years  of  age.  He 
retired  to  Monticello  about  the  middle  of  March, 
able  to  accomplish  the  last  three  days  of  his  journey 
there  on  horseback.  Here  he  resided  during  the 
remaining  seventeen  years  of  his  life. 

Mr.  Jefferson  cannot  be  reproached  with  any  fond- 

*  Works,  i.  465. 


278  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

ness  for  money,  or  for  any  disposition  unduly  to 
hoard  or  to  accumulate  it.  His  expenditures  were 
always  those  of  a  generous  and  liberal  mind.  In 
his  youth,  when  it  could  not  have  been  the  custom  for 
young  men  to  collect  a  library,  we  find  that  he  lost, 
by  the  burning  of  his  house  at  Shad  well,  books 
which  cost  him  about  a  thousand  dollars.  Not 
discouraged  by  this,  during  all  his  active  life  he  had 
purchased  books  in  literature,  science,  history,  diplo- 
macy, the  classics,  belles-lettres,  such  as  were  impor- 
tant to  his  mental  culture.  The  hospitalities  of  his 
mansion,  too,  had  always  been  without  stint  or  bound, 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  country  in  which  he 
lived,  and  this  the  attraction  of  his  distinguished  and 
agreeable  social  qualities,  and  of  his  important  politi- 
cal position,  had  rendered  very  burdensome  to  a  for- 
tune of  an  amount  which  could  never  have  been  con- 
sidered very  large,  and  of  a  nature  which  could  only 
have  been  made  to  yield  any  considerable  income  by 
a  degree  of  care  and  attention  which  he  was  never  in 
a  position  to  afford.  In  his  public  life  he  had  always 
considered  it  due  to  the  dignity  of  his  high  political 
positions  to  apportion  his  expenses  in  a  liberal  manner 
for  hospitality,  service,  and  equipage.  And,  in  fact, 
during  his  time,  in  memory  of  the  aristocratic  insti- 
tutions which  had  existed,  and  of  the  circumstances 
of  forms  and  dignities  with  which  Washington  had 
recently  surrounded  himself,  it  would  have  hardly 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON.  279 

been  possible  for  him  to  make  any  savings,  either 
from  the  allowances  of  his  official  employments  or 
from  the  income  of  his  private  fortune. 

He  returned,  then,  to  Monticello  in  declining  life, 
with  a  moderate  income,  and  with  great  demands  upon 
it.  The  principal  occupations  of  his  remaining  years 
were  the  education  of  his  grandchildren,  who  lived 
with  him,  the  management  of  his  own  estates,  hospi- 
talities to  numerous  guests,  and,  most  of  all,  the  writ- 
ing of  replies  to  the  multitude  of  letters  with  which 
he  was  quite  overburdened  and  almost  overwhelmed. 
Thus  for  sixteen  years  he  passed  his  time,  for  the 
most  part  in  the  daily  duties  and  the  daily  pleasures 
of  the  life  of  a  country  gentleman.  The  order  of  his 
life  was  at  times  shaded  and  darkened  by  serious 
anxieties  as  to  his  pecuniary  affairs.  These  severely 
pressed  upon  him  during  his  later  years,  not  so  much 
by  reason  of  his  own  improvidence,  as  of  failure  on 
the  part  of  friends  whom  he  had  trusted.  Yet,  not- 
withstanding these  things,  he  still  preserved  his  phi- 
losophy and  serenity  of  mind,  and  made  such  arrange- 
ments as  were  possible  to  meet  his  obligations  and 
to  preserve  his  independence.  During  the  period 
from  1817  to  1826,  he  had  also  found  very  serious 
and  continued  occupation  in  founding  the  establish- 
ment of  the  University  of  Virginia.  He  had  re- 
sumed the  projects  of  his  youth,  which  were  for  the 
education  of  all  classes  of  white  people.  By  his 


280  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

influence,  constantly  and  unremittingly  exhibited,  the 
Legislature  of  his  State  had  made  grants,  not  indeed 
so  large  as  he  demanded,  but  still  in  large  and  liberal 
measure,  for  the  purposes  of  Education,  generally  for 
the  founding  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  The  con- 
trol and  superintendence  of  this  establishment  in  its 
earlier  years,  indeed  its  initiation  and  foundation, 
were  confided  by  the  State  to  a  Board  of  Visitors, 
upon  which  were  glad  to  serve  the  most  distinguished 
men  of  Virginia,  with  Mr.  Jefferson  as  their  Rector 
and  Chief.  To  Mr.  Jefferson  it  was  mainly  due  that 
the  most  able  and  learned  men  were  induced  to  serve 
as  Professors  in  this  Institution,  and  that  its  Consti- 
tution was  of  the  most  liberal  character. 

The  year  1826  found  him  at  the  crisis  of  his  for- 
tunes and  of  his  life.  Eighty-three  years  old,  infirm 
of  body,  the  vigor  of  his  mind  failing,  the  embar- 
rassments of  his  pecuniary  affairs  increasing,  and 
suddenly  much  aggravated  by  an  unexpected  loss  of 
considerable  amount,  he  found  himself  obliged  to  con- 
sider how  he  could  so  dispose  of  his  remaining  prop- 
erty as  to  pay  his  debts  and  supply  the  necessities 
of  living.  While  he  was  engaged  in  proposing 
such  arrangements  as  occurred  to  him,  and  while  his 
private  and  public  friends  and  the  Legislatures  of 
some  of  the  States  were  occupied  in  devising  meas- 
ures for  the  pecuniary  relief  of  one  to  whom  they 
were  so  much  indebted,  worn  with  age,  and  with 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  281 

cares  and  disorders,  he  quietly  expired,  a  little  after 
noon,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1826 ;  about  four  hours 
before  the  death  of  his  compatriot  and  friend,  John 
Adams,  and  just  fifty  years  after  himself  and  the 
same  John  Adams  had  signed  that  Declaration  which, 
on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  announced  to  the  world  the 
Independence  of  America. 

Mr.  Jefferson  had  intellectual  talents  greatly  supe- 
rior to  the  common  mass  of  men,  and  for  the  times 
his  opportunities  of  culture  in  youth  were  admirable. 
It  was  a  special  advantage  to  him  to  have  begun  with 
excellent  academic  learning  in  early  life,  and  at  col- 
lege to  have  felt  the  quickening  influence  of  an  able 
man  like  Professor  Small,  well  trained  in  scholarship, 
and  cherishing  a  taste  for  science  and  literature.  Mr. 
Jefferson  early  learned  the  Latin,  Greek,  French, 
Spanish,  and  Italian  languages,  and  showed  a  fond- 
ness for  reading  and  study  not  common  in  Virginia, 
and  quite  uncommon  in  any  part  of  America,  for  a 
young  man  who  had  such  independent  control  of  time 
and  means  as  he  had. 

All  his  life  he  associated,  by  preference,  with  able 
men  and  educated  men.  His  inherited  property 
enabled  him  to  buy  books,  which,  to  the  value  of 
one  thousand  dollars,  were  burned  with  his  house 
at  Shadwell,  when  he  was  twenty-two  years  old. 
He  could  indulge  his  taste  for  music^  He  was  not 


282  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

forced  by  the  humble  circumstances  of  his  younger 
days  to  print  books  like  Franklin,  to  survey  lands 
like  Washington,  or  to  keep  school  like  Adams.  But 
I  cannot  think  his  mind  a  great  one.  I  cannot  point 
out  any  name  of  those  times  which  may  stand  in  the 
long  interval  between  the  names  of  Franklin  and 
John  Adams.  In  the  shorter  space  between  Adams 
and  Jefferson  there  were  many.  Some  of  them 
in  power  and  force  nearly  approached,  and  almost 
equalled  Adams.  There  was  a  certain  lack  of  solidi- 
ty :  his  intellect  was  not  very  profound,  not  very 
comprehensive.  Intelligent,  able,  adroit  as  he  was, 
his  success  as  an  intellectual  man  was  far  from  be- 
ing entire  or  complete.  He  exhibited  no  spark 
of  genius,  nor  any  remarkable  degree  of  original 
natural  talent. 

His  strength  lay  in  his  understanding  the  practical 
power.  He  learned  affairs  quickly.  He  remem- 
bered well.  He  was  fond  of  details  in  all  things. 
He  kept  a  Diary,  in  which  he  noted  systematically 
all  sorts  of  facts.  He  was  a  nice  observer  of  Nature, 
and  as  well  as  his  opportunities  permitted  he  culti- 
vated the  sciences  of  Botany,  Zoology,  Geology. 

Ardent  in  his  feelings,  quick  in  his  apprehension, 
and  rapid  in  his  conclusions,  his  judgment  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  altogether  sound  and  reliable. 

As  to  his  imagination,  he  seems  to  have  had  less 
than  the  average  of  educated  men ;  and  though  fond 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  283 

of  beauty  and  simplicity  in  all  forms,  there  yet 
seemed  to  be  little  of  the  creative  power  of  poetry 
in  him.  In  his  youth  he  loved  to  read  poetry,  but 
in  his  old  age  he  laid  it  aside  for  the  most  part,  re- 
taining only  his  fondness  for  Homer,  Hesiod,  Sopho- 
cles, Euripides,  and  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics 
generally.  In  answer  to  a  letter  making  inquiries 
as  to  a  proper  course  of  education  for  females,  he 
writes,  in  1818,  "  Too  much  poetry  should  not  be  in- 
dulged. Homer  is  useful  for  forming  style  and  taste. 
Pope,  Dryden,  Thomson,  and  Shakspeare,  and  of  the 
French,  MolieTe,  Racine,  the  Corneilles,  may  be  read 
with  pleasure  and  improvement." 

In  literature  he  disliked  fiction  generally.  Don 
Quixote  was  a  favorite  in  his  youth ;  so  were  a  few 
pastoral  and  lyric  writers ;  but  he  never  learned  to 
admire  Byron,  Campbell,  Southey,  or  Coleridge. 
Yet  I  find  no  American,  during  the  Revolutionary 
period,  whose  intellectual  life  was  so  marked  with 
good  taste  and  aesthetic  culture.  His  was  a  fine 
nature  finely  educated.  He  hated  all  coarseness, 
and  in  that  respect  was  as  modest  as  a  maiden,  any 
indelicacy  in  his  presence  causing  him  to  blush  even 
in  old  age. 

He  had  not  great  power  of  reason.  In  matters  of 
science  he  was  rather  a  dabbler  than  a  philosopher, 
yet  he  had  considerable  love  for  science.  He  knew 
something  of  mathematics,  and  read  thoughtful  books. 


284  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

He  disliked  ethics  and  metaphysics,  and  had  no  tal- 
ent for  either.  He  had  no  understanding  of  abstract 
and  universal  truth.  He  thought  Plato  a  writer  of 
nonsense,  speaks  of  the  "whimseys,  the  puerilities, 
and  unintelligible  jargon  "  of  Plato's  Republic,  and 
says  he  often  asked  himself  how  the  world  could 
have  so  long  consented  to  give  reputation  to  such 
nonsense.* 

As  an  inventor  he  had  some  pretensions.  But 
he  was  an  inventor,  not  of  new  ideas,  but  of  forms 
only.  He  had  great  skill  in  organizing  ideas  into 
institutions,  and  in  influencing  and  marshalling  men 
into  parties. 

His  administrative  powers  were  neither  great  nor 
good.  Though  he  always  gave  a  certain  degree  of 
attention  to  his  private  affairs,  yet  they  were  never 
well  managed.  His  own  property  and  that  brought 
him  by  his  wife,  would  have  seemed  sufficient  to 
maintain  an  honorable  independence ;  and  yet  this 
estate,  notwithstanding  its  large  receipts  from  offi- 
cial salaries  for  many  years,  seems  to  have  been  con- 
stantly diminishing,  as  well  during  his  absence  from 
home  as  after  his  return  to  it.  So,  too,  his  capacity 
for  administration,  both  as  Governor  of  Virginia  and 
as  President  of  the  United  States,  can  by  no  means 
be  considered  eminent.  His  conduct  of  the  affairs 
of  Virginia  during  the  British  invasion,  when  a 

*  Tucker,  ii.  356. 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  285 

British  army  of  fifteen  hundred  strong  held  his 
State  for  months,  however  difficult  may  have  been 
the  circumstances,  by  no  means  adds  to  his  reputa- 
tion. In  the  Presidency,  it  is  now  quite  certain  that 
his  administrative  ideas  respecting  the  Army  and  the 
Military  Academy,  the  Navy  and  the  Gunboats,  and 
the  continuance  of  the  Embargo,  as  an  honorable 
measure  less  oppressive'  and  more  economical  than 
war,  were  all  great  mistakes  to  have  been  made  by 
the  Head  of  the  Government  at  that  time. 

Let  us  now  consider  his  moral  character. 

He  had  a  good  deal  of  moral  courage,  though  this 
was  somewhat  limited  by  his  sensitiveness  to  public 
opinion.*  He  had  not  great  physical  courage,  else 
the  charge  against  him  as  Governor  of  Virginia  could 
never  have  been  made,  and  would  have  been  more 
decisively  repelled.  His  natural  delicacy  of  nature 
gave  him  quick  intuitions  and  rapid  perceptions  of 
the  Right.  These  induced  him  even  to  avoid  the 
theatre,  to  hate  drunkenness,  though  he  was  by  no 
means  an  ascetic,  and  to  shun  tobacco,  swearing, 
gaming,  and  all  indecency.  But  I  think  the  charge 
that  he  was  father  of  some  of  his  own  slaves  is  but 
'too  well  founded.  There  is  no  instance  of  his  hav- 
ing been  engaged  in  any  duel.  His  faults  were  vices 
of  calculation,  and  not  of  passion.  He  was  quick- 

*  Works,  iv.  444 ;  Randall,  ii.  183. 


286  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

tempered,  earnest,  and  excitable,  but  at  the  same 
time  he  was  free  and  outspoken,  good-humored,  and 
cheerful.  Always  hopeful,  he  for  a  long  time 
thought  the  war  of  1812  not  likely  to  take  place ; 
and  after  1816  was  quite  sanguine  that  he  could 
redeem  his  own  private  fortunes  by  successes  in 
farming.  In  his  earlier  years  he  was  confident  that 
the  American  Revolution  would  turn  out  well ;  and  in 
his  later  life  thought  he  should  live  to  see  the  Virginia 
University  attract  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  stu- 
dents. He  was  not  vindictive.  It  is  true  he  was 
not  tolerant  to  Ideas,  but  he  was  tolerant  to  persons. 
He  never  made  a  political  division  into  a  personal 
difference.*  He  was  not  always  quite  sincere.  He 
made  great  professions  of  love  and  respect  to  Wash- 
ington, while  he,  at  the  same  time,  sustained  Freneau 
and  Callender,  Washington's  vilest  and  most  un- 
scruplous  libellers.  In  the  matters  also  of  Thomas 
Paine's  pamphlet,  and  of  his  having  given  Mr.  Paine 
a  passage  to  America  in  a  public  ship,  his  desire  for 
popularity  seems  to  have  betrayed  him  into  making 
undue  apologies.  The  affair  of  his  letter  to  Mazzei, 
which  came  to  the  public  knowledge,  and  at  which 
Washington  was  justly  offended,  affords  another  in- 
stance of  explanations,  which  could  not  have  been 
quite  sincere. f  He  sometimes  used  harsh  language. 

*  Randall,  iii.  636. 

f  Jefferson's  expression  in  the  Mazzei  letter,  of  "  Samsons  in  the 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  287 

He  calls  Marshall's  Life  of  Washington  "  a  five-vol- 
umed  libel "  on  the  Democracy.  Hamilton's  Life  is 
to  be  written  by  one  "  who  to  the  bitterness  of  the 
President  adds  the  rancor  of  the  fiercest  Federal- 
ism." It  seems  of  him,  as  of  Franklin,  that  he  had 
lived  in  a  bad  moral  atmosphere,*  though  born  with 
a  good  and  exact  moral  nature.  He  was  of  an  ear- 
nest character,  though  he  did  not  always  seem  to  be 
so.  He  was  not  reverential  of  great  men,  and  his 
temper  was  quite  emancipated  from  the  authority  of 
great  names.  He  had  great  powers  of  pleasing  all 
that  were  about  him,  or  that  came  near  to  him. 
He  was  never  quarrelsome,  or  inclined  to  dispute. 
"  Never  had  an  enemy  in  Congress,"  says  Mr.  Ran- 
dall. He  had  many  friends,  and  he  kept  their  friend- 
ships, and  always  addressed  himself  to  conduct 

field  and  Solomons  in  council,"  must  have  referred  to  Washing- 
ton. At  the  time  of  publication  Jefferson  wrote  Madison,  August  3, 
that  he  could  not  avow  the  Mazzei  letter  "without  a  personal  dif- 
ference between  General  Washington  and  myself,  which  nothing  be- 
fore the  publication  of  this  letter  had  ever  done.  It  would  embroil 
me  also  with  all  those  with  whom  his  character  is  still  popular; 
that  is  to  say,  with  nine  tenths  of  the  people  of  the  United  States." 
Hildreth,  v.  p.  65. 

"  Mr.  Jefferson  was  a  consummate  politician  whenever  he  deemed 
a  resort  to  policy  expedient  and  allowable,  and  few  men  then  had 
more  penetration  in  fathoming  the  purposes  of  others  or  in  conceal- 
ing his  own."  Tucker. 

*  "  L'accent  du  pays  oti  Ton  est  ne  demeure  dans  1'esprit  et  dang 
le  cceur,  comme  dans  le  langage." 


288  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

affairs  in  the  smoothest  and  pleasantest  manner. 
His  perfectly  good  temper  consistently  manifested 
itself  in  every  way.  He  was  fond  of  young  children. 
All  the  members  of  his  family  and  his  household 
were  exceedingly  attached  to  him.  And  his  letters 
to  his  daughters  and  grandchildren,  and  even  to  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Adams,  exhibit  his  affectionate  nature. 
Yet  he  was  not  a  loving  man,  like  Franklin  or  Madi- 
son ;  rather  he  had  great  love  of  approbation,  and 
great  fear  of  censure,  together  with  a  mild,  amiable, 
affectionate  temper. 

Of  Mr.  Jefferson's  relation  to  Slavery  we  have 
already  seen  something.  His  family  biographer,  Mr. 
Randall,  sums  up  the  whole  by  saying,  "He  was 
wholly  opposed  to  Slavery  on  all  grounds,  and  de- 
sired its  abolition."*  And,  indeed,  it  is  true  that 
not  many  Republicans  of  the  present  day  have  prin- 
ciples more  decided,  or  more  thoroughly  considered, 
as  to  the  abstract  right  of  the  negro  to  freedom,  than 
were  uttered  and  written  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  from  his 
earliest  to  his  latest  year.  At  his  first  entrance  into 
the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  he  attempted,  but  failed, 
to  carry  a  bill  giving  to  owners  the  right  to  free  their 
slaves.  Soon  afterwards  he  writes,  that  "the  Rights 
of  human  nature  are  deeply  wounded  by  this  prac- 
tice "  [Slave  Trade].  On  many  occasions  he  sug- 
gested the  abolition  of  Slavery  in  Virginia,  by  an  act 

*  Randall,  iii.  667. 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  289 

providing  for  the  freedom  of  all  the  children  of 
slaves  born  after  a  certain  day.  The  provision 
which  he  proposed,  excluding  Slavery  from  all  the 
Territory  of  the  United  States  north  of  the  thirty- 
first  parallel  of  latitude,  has  already  been  cited.  In 
his  annual  message  to  Congress,  December  2,  1806, 
he  declares,  "I  congratulate  you,  fellow-citizens,  on 
the  approach  of  the  period  at  which  you  may  consti- 
tutionally interpose  your  authority  to  withdraw  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  from  all  further  partici- 
pation in  those  violations  of  human  rights  which  have 
been  so  long  continued  on  the  unoffending  inhabit- 
ants of  Africa."  And  in  a  letter  written  only  seven 
weeks  before  his  death  (dated  May  20,  1826),  he 
says,  "My  sentiments  [on  the  subject  of  Slavery] 
have  been  forty  years  before  the  public.  .  .  .  Al- 
though I  shall  not  live  to  see  them  consummated, 
they  will  not  die  with  me ;  but,  living  or  dying, 
they  will  always  be  in  my  most  fervent  prayer." 

In  1781,  Tarleton,  in  his  raid  through  Virginia, 
captured  Monticello,  compelled  Mr.  Jefferson  to  fly, 
committed  much  waste  upon  his  property,  and  car- 
ried off  about  thirty  of  his  slaves.  Seven  years 
later,  at  Paris,  Mr.  Jefferson,  writing  to  Dr.  Gor- 
don, says,  as  to  the. carrying  off  of  his  slaves,  "had 
this  been  to  give  them  freedom  he  [Tarleton] 
would  have  done  right."  * 

*  Works,  ii.  42G. 

19 


290  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

There  is  no  distinguished  writer  of  his  time  frgm 
whom  the  Abolitionists  can  more  effectively  quote. 
"  You  know  that  no  one  wishes  more  ardently  to  see 
an  abolition,  not  only  of  the  trade,  but  of  the  condi- 
tion of  slavery."  He  earnestly  desires  "  to  see  a 
good  system  commenced  for  raising  the  condition 
both  of  their  [the  negroes]  body  and  mind  to  what 
it  ought  to  be."  And  he  believed  the  race  capa- 
ble of  improvement  and  enlightenment,  and  very 
possibly  of  self-government. 

"  What  an  incomprehensible  machine  is  man  !  who 
can  endure  toil,  famine,  stripes,  imprisonment,  and 
death  itself,  in  vindication  of  his  own  liberty,  and 
the  next  moment  be  deaf  to  all  those  motives  whose 
power  supported  him  through  his  trial,  and  inflict 
on  his  fellow-man  a  bondage,  one  hour  of  which  is 
fraught  with  more  misery  than  ages  of  that  which  he 
rose  iu  rebellion  to  oppose.  But  we  must  wait  with 
patience  the  workings  of  an  overruling  Providence. 
I  hope  that  that  is  preparing  deliverance  of  these  our 
suffering  brethren.  When  the  measure  of  their  tears 
shall  be  full,  when  their  groans  shall  have  involved 
heaven  itself  in  darkness,  doubtless  a  God  of  Justice 
will  awaken  to  their  distress,  and  by  diffusing  light 
and  liberality  among  their  oppressors,  or,  at  length, 
by  His  exterminating  thunder  manifest  His  attention 
to  the  things  of  this  world,  and  [show]  that  they  are 
not  left  to  the  guidance  of  a  blind  fatality."  And 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  291 

what  can  be  more  graphic  than  the  often-cited  pas- 
sage from  his  Works,  on  Virginia,  respecting  slave- 
ry. "The  parent  storms,  the  child  looks  on,  catches 
the  lineaments  of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same  airs  in  the 
circle  of  smaller  slaves,  gives  a  loose  to  the  worst 
of  passions,  and  thus  nursed,  educated,  and  daily 
exercised  in  tyranny,  cannot  but  be  stamped  by  it 
with  odious  peculiarities.  .  .  .  Indeed,  I  tremble 
for  my  country  when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just. 
.  .  .  The  Almighty  has  no  attribute  which  can  take 
side  with  us  in  such  a  contest."  * 

Some  person  asked  Mr.  Jefferson  "  whether  he  had 
made  any  change  in  his  religion."  He  replied,  "Say 
nothing  of  my  religion.  It  is  known  to  my  God  and 
myself  alone.  Its  evidence  before  the  world  is  to  be 
sought  in  my  life  ;  if  that  has  been  honest  and  du- 
tiful to  society,  the  religion  which  has  regulated  it 
cannot  be  a  bad  one."  f  We  have  seen  that  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  a  profound  and  independent  thinker ; 
he  called  no  man  master,  and  among  the  various 
sectarians  of  his  day,  who  would  not  allow  the  name 
of  Christian  to  each  other,  it  cannot  be  expected  that 
it  should  have  been  commonly  allowed  to  him.  Yet 
surely  there  was  a  certain  piety,  and  some  depth  of 
religious  feeling  in  the  man.  The  book  most  fre- 
queutty  chosen  for  reading  before  he  went  to  bed 
was  a  collection  of  extracts  from  the  Bible.  In 
*  Works,  viii.  403,  404.  t  Works,  vii.  65. 


292  THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

1803,  when  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
overwhelmed  with  business,  he  extracted  from  the 
New  Testament  such  passages  as  he  believed  to  have 
come  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  arranged 
them  in  a  small  volume.  Of  this  he  says,  "  A  more 
beautiful  or  more  precious  morsel  of  ethics  I  have 
never  seen.  It  is  a  document  in  proof  that  I  am  a 
real  Christian ;  that  is  to  say,  a  disciple  of  the  doc- 
trines of  Jesus ;  very  different  from  the  Platonists, 
who  call  me  Infidel  and  themselves  Christians  and 
teachers  of  the  Gospel,  while  they  draw  all  their 
characteristic  dogmas  from  what  its  Author  never 
said  or  saw." 

He  said  of  himself  that  he  had  never  meditated  a 
specific  creed ;  and  this  is  confirmed  by  what  he  in 
another  place  refers  to  as  his  religious  creed  on 
paper,  which  was  contained  in  a  writing  to  Dr.  Ben- 
jamin Rush,  dated  April  21,  1803.*  It  was  not  the 
statement  of  any  creed,  but  a  very  general  criticism 
of  the  progress  of  mankind.  He  well  knew  that  his 
religious  ideas  were  unpopular,  and  probably  con- 
sidered them,  however  suitable  to  his  own  intellec- 
tual power  and  independence,  not  necessarily  to  be 
adopted  by  others.  Therefore,  though  he  wrote  to 
his  daughter,  Mrs.  Randolph,  saying,  "I  have  placed 
my  religious  creed  on  paper,  that  my  familjr  should 
be  enabled  to  estimate  the  libels  published  against 

*  Works,  iv.  479. 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON.  293 

me  on  this  subject,"  yet  he  never  made  any  attack 
on  the  religious  faith  of  any  sect,  nor  ever  attempted 
to  make  any  proselyte  to  his  own.  He  never  com- 
municated his  religious  belief  to  more  than  half  a 
dozen  persons.  His  oldest  grandson  writes,  "Of  his 
peculiar  religious  views  his  family  know  no  more 
than  the  world."  He  said,  "  It  was  a  subject  each  was 
religiously  bound  to  study  assiduously  for  himself, 
unbiassed  by  the  opinions  of  others.  It  was  a  matter 
solely  of  conscience.  After  thorough  investigation, 
they  were  responsible  for  the  righteousness,  but  not 
for  the  rightfulness,  of  their  opinions.  That  the 
expression  of  his  opinion  might  influence  theirs,  and 
that  therefore  he  would  not  give  it."  * 

An  anecdote  is  told  of  his  once  passing  the  even- 
ing at  Ford's  Tavern,  as  he  was  travelling  in  the 
interior  of  Virginia,  with  a  clergyman  who  had  no 
acquaintance  with  him.  While  the  topic  of  conver- 
sation was  mechanical,  the  stranger  thought  him  to 
be  an  engineer ;  when  agricultural,  he  believed  him 
to  be  a  farmer ;  but  when  the  topic  of  religion  was 
broached,  the  clergyman  considered  that  his  com- 
panion must  be  another  clergyman,  though  without 
making  up  his  mind  of  what  particular  persuasion. 
Afterwards  the  clergyman  inquired  of  the  landlord 
the  name  of  his  fellow-guest.  "  What !  don't  you 
know  the  Squire?  That  was  Mr.  Jefferson,"  was  the 

*  Randall,  iii.  561. 


294  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

reply.  "  Not  President  Jefferson  1 "  "  Yes,  Presi- 
dent Jefferson  !  "  "  Why  !  "  exclaimed  the  clergyman, 
"I  tell  you  that  was  neither  an  atheist  nor  an  irre- 
ligious man.  One  of  juster  sentiments  I  never  met 
with."  *  And  so  it  is  ;  if  we  would  form  an  opinion 
as  to  his  religion  (and  would  it  not  be  well  in  the 
case  of  others  as  well  as  of  himself?) ,  we  must  seek 
its  evidence  in  his  life.  If  that  was  honest  and  beau- 
tiful to  society,  the  religion  which  regulated  it  cannot 
have  been  a  bad  one. 

Of  all  those  who  controlled  the  helm  of  affairs 
during  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and  while  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  forms  of  our  National  and  State 
Institutions  were  carefully  organized,  there  is  none 
who  has  been  more  generally  popular,  more  common- 
ly beloved,  more  usually  believed  to  be  necessary  to 
the  Legislation  and  Administration  of  his  country, 
than  Thomas  Jefferson.  It  may  not  be  said  of  him 
that  of  all  those  famous  men  he  could  least  have  been 
spared ;  for  in  the  rare  and  great  qualities  for  pa- 
tiently and  wisely  conducting  the  vast  affairs  of  State 
and  Nation  in  pressing  emergencies,  he  seems  to 
have  been  wanting.  But  his  grand  merit  was  this  — 
that  while  his  powerful  opponents  favored  a  strong 
government,  and  believed  it  necessary  thereby  to 
repress  what  they  called  the  lower  classes,  he,  Jef- 

*  Randall,  iii.   345. 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON.  295 

ferson,  believed  in  Humanity ;  believed  in  a  true 
Democracy.  He  respected  labor  and  education,  and 
upheld  the  right  to  education  of  all  men.  These 
were  the  Ideas  in  which  he  was  far  in  advance  of  all 
the  considerable  men,  whether  of  his  State  or  of  his 
Nation  —  ideas  which  he  illustrated  through  long 
years  of  his  life  and  conduct.  The  great  debt  that 
the  Nation  owes  to  him  is  this  —  that  he  so  ably  and 
consistently  advocated  these  needful  opinions,  that 
he  made  himself  the  head  and  the  hand  of  the  great 
party  that  carried  these  ideas  into  power,  that  put 
an  end  to  all  possibility  of  class  government,  made 
naturalization  easy,  extended  the  suffrage  and  applied 
it  to  judicial  office,  opened  a  still  wider  and  better 
education  to  all,  and  quietly  inaugurated  reforms,  yet 
incomplete,  of  which  we  have  the  benefit  to  this  day, 
and  which,  but  for  him,  we  might  not  have  won 
against  the  party  of  Strong  Government,  except  by 
a  difficult  and  painful  Revolution. 


INDEX. 


FRANKLIN. 

PAGE 

Adams,  John. .  26,  32 

Adams,  Matthew 21 

Adams,  Samuel 26 

A  great  Organizer 40 

A  great  Picture 23 

Almanac,  Poor  Richard's.  . 24 

A  master  Printer 21 

Analysis  of  Character  and  Intellect.    .        .        .        »  37,  39 

An  old  Man,  but  active .        .        .        31 

A  Pacificator 46,  48 

Appeared  in  a  Suit  of  Manchester  Velvet.       ....        30 
Appointed  Agent  for  Georgia,  New  Jersey,  and  Massachusetts.       28 

"Billy." 60 

Birthplace.       .  .13 

Books 19,  23 

Born  in  Boston. 16 

Borrows  Cannon  of  Governor  Clinton 47 

Boy  of  Fourteen 18,  23 

Braddock,  General. 27 

Brought  before  the  Privy  Council  of  King  of  England.  .        29 

Burial  Place 17 

Buys  Burton's  Historical  Collections 38 

Character 36,  54 

Children 17 

Chosen  Member  of  First  Colonial  Congress.        .        .        .        .27 
"  Citizens  of  eminent  Gravity." 28 

(297) 


298  INDEX. 

Clerk  of  the  General  Assembly. 24 

Colleges  confer  Honors. 25,  26 

Constructive  as  well  as  inventive 40 

Contemporaries ....36 

Correspondence. 25 

Gushing,  Mr 29 

Daughter. 18 

Deceived  by  Keith,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania.       ...  16 

Devout  Spirit 58 

Died  at  Philadelphia 17 

Diplomatic  Labors 65 

Disliked  by  the  British  Government.        .....  27 

Drafting  the  Declaration  of  Independence 26 

Editor  of  his  Brother's  Newspaper 22 

Education 18 

Endeavors  to  prevent  Privateering.     .        .        .        .  32,  33 

Enemies. 66 

Enrolled  Men  for  Defence  of  Quaker  City 42 

"  Errata "  given  by  himself. .  62 

Established  first  American  Free  School  out  of  New  England.      .  42 

Father  and  Mother 19 

Fifteenth  Child  of  the  Tallow  Chandler 14 

Filled  various  Offices. 24 

First  Meal  in  Philadelphia 16 

Founder  of  the  first  Scientific  Association  on  this  Continent.      .  42 

General  Braddock 27 

Genius  for  Creation  and  Administration.          .    /    .        .         .        43 
Governor  Hutchinson.          .        .  .        .        .        .       28,  29 

Grandmother  of  Franklin  bought  for  twenty  Founds.      .        .        20 
Greatest  Discovery  of  the  Century.    ......     24 

Gunpowder 49 

His  illegitimate  Son 17 

Hugh  Peters 19,  20 

Hutchinson  and  Oliver  Letters 29 

Insulted  by  the  King's  Solicitor. 29 

Intellect 86,  37 


INDEX.  299 

In  the  Field  near  Philadelphia. 23,  24 

Invented  a  Phonographic  Alphabet 41 

Intimacies  with  Religious  Men. 58 

Jackson,  Mr.,  of  Georgia 35 

James  Franklin. 21 

Jay.  .'.... 32 

Jefferson 26,  32,  45 

Josiah  Franklin 13 

Journeyman  Printer  in  Philadelphia. 22 

Keith,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania 16 

Knew  how  to  conciliate 45 

Knew  how  to  use  the  auspicious  Moment 46,  47 

Last  public  Act. 34 

Last  public  Writing 35 

Lieutenant  Governor  Oliver •        .  28 

Little  Inconsistencies 62 

Manages  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania.          .        .        .        .49 

Married 17 

Mary  Morrell 19 

Minister  to  France. 17 

Miss  Read 22,  51,  52 

Moral  Powers 47,  48 

National  Gazette. 35 

Never  revengeful  or  envious. 53 

New  England  Courant 21 

New  England  Tories 29 

One  of  his  most  ingenious  Works.  .  .....    35 

Organized  various  Societies  and  Companies 42 

Peter  Folger •     .        .        .        .19 

Petition  to  Congress. 34 

Planned  the  Scheme  of  the  Union 27 

Political  Whimseys. 67 

Poor  Richard's  Almanac 63,  64 

Policy 49 

Popular  Judgment 38 

Private  Morals.         ...  .....        51 


300  INDEX. 

Quaker  Fire  Engine 49 

Quaker  Grain. 49 

Quarrelled  with  his  Brother  James 22 

Religious  Views 56-60 

Sells  his  "  Varses"  in  the  Streets  of  Boston.  ...  18 

Services  to  American  Education 63 

Set  on  foot  Military  Expeditions 27,  28 

Sign  of  the  Blue  Ball.          ........  13 

Slavery  in  1758 60 

Society  for  Abolition  of  Slavery 33 

Started  first  Magazine  in  America. 42 

Studied  Languages 25 

Sydney  Smith 16 

Testimony  before  House  of  Commons 28 

Twenty-third  Article  of  Treaty 60,  61 

"  The  Peculiar  Institution "  defended.        .        .        .        .        .35 

Uncle  Benjamin 20 

Various  Contrivances  and  Suggestions 40,  41 

Wedderburn,  Mr 29 

Whitefield's  Orphan  House 67,  68 

Wife  died. 17 

William  Temple  Franklin. 17 

Whately 29 

Wrenching  the  Sceptre  from  Tyrants 31 


INDEX.  301 


WASHINGTON. 

Administrative  Talents 118,  119 

A  good  Organizer .        .117 

A  great  Work  before  him 108 

Alexander  Hamilton 110 

Anxiety  for  the  universal  Welfare. 106 

Appointed  Commander-in- Chief  of  the  American  Forces.  .        .    79 

Appointments. 110 

Arnold.        . 144 

Augustine  Washington. 75 

Beginning  of  Florida  War 139 

Benevolent  and  charitable. 133 

Birth.  .     ~.        .        . 76,  77 

Book  of  Surveys.    .        .       - 83 

Born  a  Slaveholder 136 

Boyhood  and  Youth 80 

Bravery  and  Caution.  .        . 127 

Bridge's  Creek 75 

Burgoyne  entrapped.  . 104 

Cabal  in  the  Army. .        129 

Cabinet Ill 

Character 133,  134 

Chosen  Delegate  to  Federal  Congress 108 

Commander-in-Chief  of  the  American  Army.         ...         96 
Commissions.       ..........78 

Compared  with  Franklin,  Adams,  &c 121 

Constitution 109 

Cromwell  and  Washington.     ..*....        145 

Created  an  Army 144 

Crowning  Virtue 130 

Death.     . 80 

Defeat  of  General  St.  Clair 124 

Diary.      .        .        .....        .        .        .     90,93,94 

Difficulties 102,  112,  119,  127,  128 

Discipline.       .        .        .        .         .        .         .  .        .          88 

Dress 90 

Dr.  Franklin. 79,  104 


302  INDEX. 

Early  Military  Life 85 

Elected  a  Delegate  to  First  General  Congress.       ...         79 
Enemies 104 

Faithful  to  himself. 132 

Farewell  Address 115 

Father.    .         . 79,  81 

Federal  Party. 142 

First  Fugitive  Slave 140 

Fond  of  Form  and  Parade. 122 

Fondness  for  the  Military  Profession.     .....          82 

Franklin's  Plan. 107 

General  Henry  Lee 83 

General  Lee.        .        .        . 102 

General  Ward 98 

Gerry,  Mr 109 

Governor  Dinwiddie 86 

Hancock's  Grudge  against  Adams.      .        .        .        .        ...    97 

Harsh  Measures .        .        129,  130 

Hasty  Temper 123 

Hamilton's  Influence .        .        .        122 

House  of  Burgesses 79,  95 

Ideas  of  Managing  the  Army.         .        .        .        .        .        .        143 

Integrity •  130 

Intellect 1        .        .      114 

Intended  Treason  of  General  Lee 102 

Interest  in  Public  Education. 107 

Jane  Butler .     75 

Jealousy  of  the  States 108 

Jumonville. 127 

Knew  how  to  command  and  obey 133 

Lawrence  Washington 75,  78 

Left  School '     .        .        .          82 

Letters 115 

Little  Confidence  in  the  People 142 

Love  of  Approbation. 125 

"  Lowland  Beauty." 83,  84 


INDEX.  303 

Making  a  new  Plough. 94. 

Manuscript  Books. 81,  126 

Married  the  Widow  of  Mr.  Custis 78,  89 

Mary  Ball.      .  75 

Member  of  Second  Congress 95 

Miss  Carey.     ..........          83 

Miss  Grimes 83 

Moral  Excellence •  121,  132 

Mother 84 

Mount  Vernon 78,  89,  106,  141 

Mrs.  Martha  Custis 78,  89,  133 

Natural  Temperament.   .     -  .         .        .        .        .        .  121 

Never  understood  New  England.  .        .  143,  144 

Nobility  of  Character 105,  106 

Not  an  Originator 116,  120 

No  Vanity 126 

Obliged  to  create  an  Army.         .......     99 

One  of  the  Great  Authorities  in  American  Politics.        .        .         77 

Peace  proclaimed  in  Camp. 105 

Peculiarities.  . 141 

Personal  Appearance. 140,  141 

President  of  the  Convention  to  frame  a  Constitution.     .        .        109 

President  of  the  United  States 79 

Public  Surveyor 77,  110 

Quarrel  in  his  Cabinet. Ill 

Refused  a  Crown.  132,  145 

Remark  of  Patrick  Henry 96 

Religious  Character 134-136,  138 

Resolute  Will •        -129 

Returns  his  Commission 105 

Reverence  of  the  Red  Man 146 

Richard  Henry  Lee 104 

Rules  for  Behavior 82 

Samuel  Adams 79,  120 

Saturday  a  famous  Day  in  American  Annals 76 

School  Privileges.  77,  81 


304  INDEX. 

Sends  to  Marblehead  for  Gunpowder.     .....  123 

Sent  to  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston 89 

Seven  Years'  Apprenticeship  in  War 88 

Sixth  Anniversary  of  Boston  Massacre 100 

Slaves 91,  136-138 

State  of  the  Troops .        .      98,  103 

Style  of  Living 90 

Sufferings  of  the  Troops 103 

Superiority  of  British  Army.         ......  99 

Taste  for  fine  Dress 90,  91 

The  first  Man  of  his  Type 145 

"  The  Frontier  Colonel."       ...;...  86 

The  Soldiers  his  Children 106 

The  sublimest  Man  in  the  World 126 

Trials  with  his  Army 87 

Undue  Influence  of  Hamilton 142 

Used  Fraud  to  spare  Force 131 

Various  Schemes. 107 

Virginia  Legislature. 86 

Volunteer  in  General  Braddock's  Army 85 

Went  to  the  West  Indies 78 

What  he  might  have  said 139 

Who  were  regarded  with  Confidence. 133 

Williamsburg 89 

Writes  to  Lafayette 137 

Youthful  Flames.  .                                .       .  83 


INDEX.  305 


JOHN    ADAMS. 

Abby  Smith's  Education 162,  1G3 

Acts  on  his  own  Responsibility 194,  209 

Advice  and  Service. .        .       175 

Alien  and  Sedition  Laws 195 

American  Affairs  in  Confusion 179 

Appeals  to  the  Dutch  People 182,  183,  209 

Appointed  Chief  Justice  of  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts.        178 
Appointed  Commissioner.         .......       184 

Appointed  Minister  to  Great  Britain 181 

Art  of  Leading 174 

A  Sentiment  for  Independence  Day. 200 

Beaten  at  Election. 196 

Boston  Massacre 166 

Brace  of  Adamses 168 

Braintree "...  149,  151 

British  Government 170 

Broke  with  his  Cabinet 193 

Bound  by  his  Relation  to  his  Party 192,  193 

Career  as  a  Politician  and  Diplomatist.    .         .         .       179,  206,  207 

Character 200,  201 

Chief  Acts  of  his  Administration 192 

Chief  Justice  impeached 171,  208 

Childhood  and  Youth 151 

Closed  Session  of  General  Court 173 

Colonel  John  Quincy 159 

Courtship  and  Marriage 159,  162 

"  Davila  "  Papers 189 

Death  of  his  Wife. 198 

Declaration  of  Independence 176,  214,  215,  218 

Defence  of  the  Constitution 186 

Defended  the  British  Soldiers 166,  208 

Delegates  to  American  Congress *        «       173 

Diary 157,  213,  214,  220 

Difficult  Part  to  perform 174 

Dixwell.  173 


306  INDEX. 

Declaration  of  Rights  and  Grievances 176,  204 

Dr.  Willard 155 

Educational  Helps 156 

Election  Day. 1G9 

Executive  of  the  United  States. 187 

Ex-President  in  private  Life 197 

Faithful,  yet  dishonored. 197 

Favored  a  Naval  and  Military  Academy 177,  205 

Federalists  displeased 190 

Franklin 183,  200,  201,  205,  210,  230 

French  Court  and  American  Minister 193 

Four  great  Trials 208 

Fiftieth  Birthday  of  the  Nation 200 

George  Davie 194 

Governor  Bernard 165 

Governor  Shirley.        . 167 

Grandfather's  Grandfather  to  the  Second  President.        .        .       149 
Grass  growing  on  Long  Wharf.    .        .  .        .        .        .172 

Great  Risk 179 

Great  Virtues 211 

Grumbling  Proclivity 154,  216,  220 

Halcyon  Days •  185 

Henry  Adams. 149 

Honored  by  Townsmen .        .  198 

Hostility  to  the  Constitution .        .        .188 

"  Independence  Forever." 200 

Intended  for  the  Ministry.    .......  154,  155 

Interest  in  the  Stamp  Act,  &c., 163 

Interview  with  the  King 185,  186 

Jefferson 190,  200,  221,  223,  224 

John  Fries. 195,  221 

John  Norton, 159 

John  Quincy  Adams •  210,211 

Josiah  Quincy 166 

Letter  from  his  Wife. 191 

Letters  of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver.  .  1C9 


INDEX.  307 

Left  Congress. 178 

Life  as  a  Lawyer. 158 

Lord  Mansfield 184 

Married 159 

"  Midnight  Judges."        ........       196 

Minority  of  Votes 188 

Miss  Abigail  Smith. 159 

Mount  Wollaston 149 

Mr.  Gridley .        .       164 

Mr.  West 184 

Noble  Act  of  his  native  State. 197 

Nominates  Mr.  William  Vans  Murray  Minister  to  France.      .  194 

Obedience 161 

Old  Officials.        ..........  192 

One  Man  of  inflexible  Integrity 179 

One  of  the  most  important  Acts  of  his  Life 181 

Otis  and  Adams 164 

Period  of  terrible  Defeats 178 

Politician  in  the  American  Congress 172 

Position  as  Vice-President. 189 

Presented  to  the  King.  .  185 

"  President  of  three  Votes."        . 190 

Private  Life  and  political  Defeat 196 

Property  and  Persons. 180 

Quarrels  with  Washington 206 

Religious  Emotions  and  Views.  221,  225 

Representatives  of  Boston 167 

Resigned  his  Offices 184,  186 

Retires  to  his  Home «        .        •       195 

Revised  the  Constitution 198 

Rev.  Mr.  Smith .        ....  KM 

Richard  Cranch 1GO 

Samuel  Adams 164 

Selects  Commander-in-Chief  of  Army.       .        .        .  176,  202,  20<J 
Shays's  Rebellion 187 


308  INDEX. 

Silas  Deane 179 

Stamp  Act 165 

Studies 161,  152,  157,  158 

Studying  Law. 156 

Teaches  School. 153 

"  The  Boston  Seat." 167 

Thinking •   .         .164 

Thomas  Shepard .        .        .        .       160 

Treaty  of  Commerce. 184 

Trouble  with  his  Cabinet 195,  196 

Tutors 151 

Twenty-six  Letters.  .  182 

Two  Parties  in  the  new  State 180 

Vergennes 181,  182,  184,  185 

Vice-President  and  President. 150 

Visit  to  the  Grave  of  Dixwell 173 

Went  to  England 184 

West  End 160 

Wooing .    160,  161 

Writings .         178, 198,  226, 227, 

Yielded  to  Washington 193 


INDEX.  309 


THOMAS  JEFFEKSON. 

Aaron  Burr 258 

Abolished  direct  Taxes. 266 

A  fine  Nature  finely  educated 283 

Anecdote  of  Ford's  Tavern. 293 

A  nice  Observer  of  Nature.        . 282 

Anxiety  as  to  pecuniary  Affairs 279,  280 

Associates. 281 

Autobiography.       .         .         .         ......  263 

Birth,  Boyhood,  and  Youth.   .        .        .        .        .                 240,  243 

Blame  attached  to  Jefferson 269 

British  Orders.         .        .        . 274 

Burr,  Vice-President.- 258 

» 

Cabinet. 259,  260 

Champion  of  the  progressive  Party. 256 

Chancery  Court 262 

Close  of  public  Life.           .  ' 277 

Commercial  States 273 

Conduct  of  Affairs  during  British  Invasion.       .         .        .     284,  285 

Constitutional  Scruples. 270 

Crisis  of  his  Fortunes  and  his  Life 280 

Death 281 

Decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan 274 

Decrees  of  Emperor  of  France 271 

Democracy 260 

Destined  to  higher  Services. 253 

Disliked  by  President  Adams .        .  256 

Education. 235 

Educational  Projects 279 

Embargo.        . 271,273,276 

Entered  College 241 

Estates  plundered. 250 

Excise  Law 266 

Executive  of  the  United  States 253 

Expenditures.     ...........  278 


310  INDEX. 

Explanation  and  Justification .        275 

Extracts  from  the  New  Testament 292 

Faults 285,  286 

Fear  of  the  Despotism  of  the  Judiciary.   .....  265 

Federal  Party  dead 258 

"  Few  die,  and  none  resign." 260 

First  Consul  Bonaparte.        , 269 

"  First  Families." 238 

Fondness  for  Reading  and  Study 281 

Friends 287 

George  Wythe. 242 

Good  Temper.  288 

Governor  of  Virginia «...        242 

Hamilton. 254,  255 

Hamilton's  Life 287 

Headquarters  of  the  Opposition 255 

Henry  Weatherbourne's  Bowl  of  Punch 239 

A. 

Inaugural  Address 259 

Intellectual  Talents 281,  282 

Inventive  and  administrative  Powers.         ....     284,  285 
Isham  Randolph 239 

James  Madison. 277 

Jane  Randolph 239 

Jefferson  and  Burr 258 

John  Quincy  Adams.      .        .        .        .        .        .        .        275,  277 

John  Wayles. 244 

Juggling  Tricks  of  Diplomacy 270 

Kentucky  Resolutions.       .        ..        ....        .     257 

Laid  the  Axe  at  the  Root  of  the  Tree 247 

Lawyer  and  Politician 243 

Letter  to  Mazzei 286,  287 

Little  administrative  Talent 250 

Loss  of  Books 278 

Love  for  Science.       ........    283,  284 


INDEX.  311 

Member  of  House  of  Delegates.    ......        250 

Mental  Powers. 282,  283 

Monticello 251,  277,  279,  289 

Moral  Character. 285 

Mr.  Maury ' 241 

Mrs.  Martha  Skelton 244 

Mrs.  Randall 288 

Negotiations  and  Purchase 267 

New  England 235,  237 

Not  an  Atheist  nor  an  irreligious  Man.      .....    294 

Occupation  of  his  last  Years 279 

Oliver  Wolcott's  letter  to  Fisher  Ames.          ....  265 

One  Objection  to  the  Constitution 262 

Opinion  of  female  Education. 283 

Opposed  the  establishment  of  a  Navy 260 

Orders  in  Council 271,  274 

Ordinance  of  the  North-west  Territory 251 

Pardon 267 

People's  Convention. 245 

Personal  Appearance 225,  226 

Peter  Jefferson 239 

Peyton  Randolph. 246 

Popular  and  beloved.      .        . 294 

Poverty  of  the  Militia 249 

Power  diminishing.         ........  255 

Provision  excluding  Slavery.     . 289 

Quick  Intuitions 285 

Recognized  Leader  of  Congress 252 

Recommended  Revision  of  the  Laws.        .....     248 

Relation  to  Slavery 288 

Religion 235,236 

Religious  Views.    . 291-294 

Removed  the  Federal  Leaders. 260 

Repeal  of  the  Embargo 276 

Report  of  the  Declaration 246 

Responsibility  of  the  Federalists 258 


312  INDEX. 

Resumes  the  Projects  of  his  Youth.  .        .        .        .        .     279 

Rotation  in  Office. 260 

Secretary  of  State 253,  254 

Sentiments  on  the  Subject  of  Slavery 289 

Serious  Dilemma. >  272 

Shadwell 239,  240,  278,  281 

Ship  Horizon  condemned 273 

Singular  Reception  at  Home 252 

Solution  of  Difficulties 273 

Studies.      .  240 

Tarleton. ^  .  289 

The  great  Debt  the  Nation  owes  to  him.   .....  295 

The  Judiciary .        .        .        .  264 

Theory  of  Commerce  and  Navigation 277 

"  Trembles  for  his  Country  "  in  View  of  Slavery.          .        .  291 

University  of  Virginia .        .    279,  280 

Urges  Emancipation 245 

View  of  leading  Federalists.      .......     273 

View  of  the  Cession  of  Louisiana 267,  268 

Views  of  Abolition.  ........     290,291 

Virginia.         .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .         236,  237 

Virginia  Resolutions. 257 

Whiskey  Insurrection.       ........    266 

Writes  to  Robert  R.  Livingston. 267 


THEODORE  PARKER'S  WRITINGS. 


3STEW    BZ5ITIO3ST. 


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III.  The    Aspect  of    Freedom    in 
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Death  of  Daniel  Webster. 

V.  The  Nebraska  Question. 

VI.  The  Condition  of  America   in 
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I.  The  Progress  of  America. 

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utes of  Men. 

IV.  The  Dangers  which  Threaten 
the  Rights  of  Man  in  America. 

V.  Some  Account  of  my  Ministry. 

VI.  The  Public  Function  of  Woman. 

VII.  Sermon  of  Old  Age. 


Critical  and  Miscellaneous  Writings,    l  vol., 

12mo,  cloth.     $1.50. 


I.  A  Lesson  for  the  Day. 

II.  German  Literature. 

III.  The  Life  of  St.  Bernard  of  Clair- 
vaux. 

IV.  Truth  against  the  World. 

V.  Thoughts  on  Labor. 

VI.  The  Transient  and  Permanent  in 
Christianity. 


VII.  The  Pharisees. 

VIII.  Education   of  the  Laboring 
Classes. 

IX.  How  to  Move  the  World. 

X.  Primitive  Christianity. 

XI.  Strauss's  Life  of  Jesus. 

XII.  Thoughts  on  Theology. 


Historic  Americans  —  Franklin,Washington,  Adams* 
and  Jefferson.  With  an  Introduction  by  Rev.  O.  B. 

Frothingham.    $1.50. 

These  volumes,  ten  in  number,  bound  in  uniform  style,  are  put  up  in  a 
neat  box;  price  for  the  set,  $15.00. 

The  Trial  of  Theodore  Parker  for  the  Misdemeanor 

of  a  Speech  in  Faneuil  Hall  against  Kidnapping;  with 
the  Defence.     1  vol.,  8vo,  cloth.     $1.50. 

This  work  is  not  stereotyped,  aud  a  <ew  copies  only  remain  in  print. 

The  Two  Christmas  Celebrations  —  A.  D.  I.  and 

MDCCCLV.     A  Christmas  Story.     Square  16mo,  cloth. 
60  cts. 

A  Critical  and  Historical  Introduction  to 
the  Canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. From  the  German  of  De  Wette.  Translated 
and  enlarged  by  Theodore  Parker.  Fourth  Edition. 
2  vols.,  8vo,  cloth.  $7.00. 

"  After  1  became  a  minister,  I  laid  out  an  extensive  plan  of  study,  a  contin- 
uation of  previous  work.  I  intended  to  write  a  History  of  the  Progressive 
Development  of  Religion  among  the  Leading  Races  of  Mankind,  aud  attended 
at  once  to  certain  preliminaries.  I  studied  the  Bible  more  carefully  and  com- 
prehensively than  before,  both  the  criticism  aud  interpretation,  and  in  six  or 
seven  years  prepared  an  Introduction  to  the  Canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
Testament,  translated  from  the  German  of  Dr.  De  Wette,  the  ablest  writer  in 
the  world  on  that  theme,  and  the  book  as  published  was  partly  his  and  partly 
mine."  —  J  ide  Theodore  Parker's  Letter  from  Santa  Cruz,  pp.  58,  59. 

A  Sermon  of  Immortal  Life.   Pamphlet.   15  cts. 
The   Material  Condition  of  the  People  of 

Massachusetts.     Pamphlet.     20  cts. 
Sold  by  Booksellers,  or  mailed,  postpaid,  on  receipt  of  the  price,  by 

HORACE  B.  FULLER,  Publisher, 
14  Bromfield  Street, 

BOSTON. 


^OFULA.11    BOOKS. 


THE  LITTLE  BAREFOOT, 

A   TALE,   BY 
BERTHOLD  AUERBACH. 

Translated  from  the  German  by  ELIZA  BUCKMINSTER  LEE.    With  four 
full-page,  and  numerous  smaller  Original  Illustrations. 

Price,  $1.25. 

"  LITTLE  BAREFOOT  "  is  a  very  quaint  and  touching  story  of 
the  adventures  and  struggles  of  two  orphan  children,  named 
Amrie,  and  Datui  her  brother.  The  translation  is  very  graceful, 
and  just  enough  of  the  German  tone  and  coloring  are  retained  to 
add  to  the  charm  of  the  book.  The  main  points  of  the  story  are 
to  show  how  self-reliance,  a  resolute  spirit,  and,  most  of  all,  a 
cheerful  faith  in  God,  finally  triumph  over  all  adversity,  and 
establish  a  character  which  commands  love  and  respect,  and  is  a 
constant  blessing. 

"  This  is  a  beautiful  little  story  by  Auerbach,  soft  and  hazy  as  an  Indian 
Bummer;  a  story  on  which  in  lazy  mood  you  would  float  off  into  cloud- 
l&nd,  and  forget  the  actual  toiling  world.  And  yet  there  are  pictures  in  it 
as  sharply  and  clearly  drawn  as  any  sketched  by  the  engraver's  hand. 
"  Barefoot,"  though  living  a  life  of  the  strangest  thoughts  and  fancies,  is 
yet  one  of  the  most  actual  and  practical  of  bodies,  by  a  downright  inde- 
pendence and  unswerving  honesty  winning  her  way  in  the  world.  Though 
the  schools  do  but  little  for  her,  nature  and  the  sharp  realities  of  her  lot 
teach  her  a  deep  insight  and  wisdom,  to  which  few  who  are  more  favored 
Attain."  —  Journal  and  Messenger,  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

"  It  is  one  of  those  delightful  little  German  stories  of  woman's  self-deny- 
ing virtue  which,  like  Hans  Christian  Andersen's,  will  be  read  with  pleas- 
ure by  children,  and  with  little  less  pleasure  and  no  small  profit  by  their 
grandsires."  —  Hound  Table,  JV.  T. 

"  This  little  story  has  long  been  recognized  as  one  of  the  best  of  juvenile 
books.  It  teaches  a  pure  and  noble  lesson,  and  is  written  with  the  grace 
and  beauty  of  style  that  characterizes  so  much  of  the  juvenile  literature 
of  Grermany.  The  illustrations  are  drawn  with  skill  and  true  artistic 
feeling,  and  put  to  shame  the  feeble  drawings  with  which  American  books 
are  too  frequently  illustrated."  —  N.  Y.  Independent. 


Popular  Books. 


JOSEPH  IN   THE   SNOW. 

BY  BERTHOLD  AUERBACH, 

[Author  of  "  The  Little  Barefoot."    Illustrated  with  24  Original  designs 
Price,  $1.35. 

Auerbach  has  a  high  reputation  in  Germany  as  a  writer  of 
stories  designed  for  popular  amusement  and  instruction,  es- 
pecially those  adapted  to  youthful  minds.  He  constructs  the 
most  charming  fictions  out  of  the  incidents  of  common  life,  and 
while  he  delights  the  imagination  with  his  simple  and  natural 
story,  he  aims  at  the  same  time  to  catch  the  sympathies  of  the 
heart,  and  inspire  it  with  a  love  of  virtue. 

"  This  is  one  of  those  simple  and  beautiful  tales,  in  the  production  of 
which  the  German  novelists  specially  excel,  and  which  have  given  Auer- 
bach so  wide  a  popularity.  The  story  is  naturally  and  gracefully  told, 
and  it  has  been  translated  in  a  manner  which  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired. 
We  have  seldom  seen  a  translation  which  was  characterized  by  greater 
smoothness,  dignity  of  expression,  and  manifest  fidelity.  The  volume  is 
embellished  with  numerous  engravings  and  initial  letters,  from  original 
designs,  by  Miss  Greene,  many  of  which  are  of  great  merit."  —  Christian 
Register. 

" '  Joseph  in  the  Snow,'  published  by  Horace  B.  Fuller,  Boston,  is  a 
story  translated  from  the  German  of  Berthold  Auerbach,  the  well-known 
and  favorite  author,  whose  admirable  novel,  '  On  the  Heights,'  has  been 
so  favorably  received  in  this  country.  It  is  doubtful  whether  '  Joseph  in 
the  Snow  '  should  be  considered  a  juvenile  story  or  not.  The  hero  is  a 
child,  and  upon  this  child  the  chief  interest  of  the  narrative  concentrates, 
but  in  many  respects  it  is  written  for  mature  minds.  It  is  a  graphic,  sim- 
ple, and  touching  tale  of  unusual  power,  that  may  be  read  with  pleasure  by 
old  and  young  alike." — N.  T.  Evening  Post. 


The  Ferry  Boy  and  the  Financier, 

By  a  well-known  author.    12mo.    Illustrated. 
Price,  $1.50. 

"  THE  FERRY  BOY  AND  THE  FINANCIER  "  is  a  narrative,  en* 
ttrely  authentic,  of  the  boy-life  of  Hon.  S.  P.  Chase,  now  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States.  It  is  the  only  life  of  one  of  our 
most  distinguished  statesmen,  and  is  at  once  entertaining  and 
instructive. 

"  The  perusal  of  the  first  chapter  compels  the  perusal  of  the  second, 
and  so  on  until  the  volume  is  finished,  and  pronounced  unsurpassed  of  iti 
class."  —  Independent,  N.  Y. 


Popular  Books. 


THE   WELL-SPENT   HOUR. 

A  STORY  FOB   GIRLS. 

BY    MRS.     FOLLEN. 
Illustrated.    Price,  $1.35. 

The  WELL-SPENT  HOUR  is  a  wholesome,  simply  written  little 
etory,  old-fashioned  in  its  matter  of  fact,  tone,  and  sober  account 
of  a  little  girl's  life,  into  which  no  thread  of  romance  is  woven. 

"  '  The  Well-Spent  Hour '  is  written  in  Mrs.  Pollen's  happiest  vein.  It 
is  full  of  touches  of  nature,  impressive  with  a  serene  wisdom,  and  while  it 
makes  the  older  men  and  women  bend  to  catch  the  suggestive  teachings 
of  childhood,  it  takes  childhood  gently  by  the  hand  and  leads  it  up  to 
maturer  thinking  and  a  higher  plane  of  life."  —  Morning  Star. 

"  It  has  just  the  qualities  needed  to  counteract  the  intense,  melodramatic, 
1  smart,'  slipshod,  and  otherwise  injurious  style  of  writing,  which  charac- 
terizes so  many  of  the  popular  juveniles  of  the  present  day." — Sunday 
School  Gazette. 

"  This  is  a  well  printed,  finely  illustrated,  and  an  admirable  child's  book. 
It  is  almost  impossible  to  over-estimate  the  value  of  this  class  of  books, 
which  inculcate  a  sound  morality  in  a  very  interesting  manner."  —  Morning 
Herald,  Philadelphia. 

Morning  Glories,  and  Other  Stories, 

A  delightful  volume  of  Tales  in  Prose  and  Verse. 
BY  Miss  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT, 

Author  of  "  Little  Women,"  Ac.     1  vol.  16mo.     Beautifully  illustrated 
with  original  designs,  by  Miss  GREENE. 

Price,  $1.25. 

These  stories  are  very  admirable,  both  in  their  substance, 
style,  and  lessons.  They  catch  the  attention  of  the  young  by 
their  extra  human  qualities,  and  are  not  likely  to  mislead 
either  the  fancy,  judgment,  or  heart. 

"  The  lessons  of  all  these  stories  are  noble,  the  imagery  charming,  and 
the  writing  fresh  and  original."  —  Anti-Slavery  Standard. 

"  Miss  Aleott  is  a  woman  of  genius,  and  whatever  she  writes  is  sure  to 
have  both  merit  and  attraction.  Both  these  qualities  appear  conspicuously 
In  this  collection  of  stories  and  poems.  They  are  admirably  constructed 
to  interest  children,  and  there  is  material  in  them  for  the  entertainment  of 
the  older  class  of  readers  as  well.  The  book  is  to  be  recommended  in 
every  aspect,  for  the  publisher  has  made  it  one  of  the  handsomest  of  holi- 
day volumes  by  the  taste  he  has  shown  in  its  illustrations,  paper,  printing 
and  binding."  —  Roxbury  Journal. 


4  Popular  Books. 

THE  FARMER  BOY, 

And  How  He  Became  Commander-in- Chief. 

BY  UNCLE  JUVINELL. 

With  an  introduction  by  WILLIAM  M.  THAYER,  author  of"  Pioneer  Boy 
etc.    12mo.    With  original  illustrations.    $1.50. 

This  is,  perhaps,  the  most  delightful  life  of  Washington  fo' 
the  young  ever  written.  The  incidents  are  invested  with  a  new 
interest  by  the  graceful  style  of  the  narrative ;  and  the  particu- 
lars of  the  youthful  hero's  education  and  early  training  are  so 
presented  as  to  be  doubly  valuable  in  helping  the  young  reader 
to  the  formation  of  correct  habits,  and  the  construction  of  a 
manly  character. 

Fairy  Bells,  and  What  They  Tolled  Us, 

Translated  from  the  German  by  Miss  LANDER,  author  of  "  Spectacles  for 

Young  Eyes.''    Beautifully  illustrated. 

Price,  $1.35. 

"  These  tales,  as  the  title  indicates,  are  from  the  German,  and  have  the 
freshness,  originality,  and  quaintness  that  usually  characterize  German 
stories.  The  volume  is  neatly  and  tastefully  bound,  and  will  form  a  beau- 
tiful present  for  the  holidays." —  Springfield  Union. 

" '  Fairy  Bells  '  ring  BO  sweetly  and  merrily  that  we  have  been  charmed 
by  their  harmonies.  They  are  admirably  translated,  and  Mr.  Fuller  has 
published  them  in  beautiful  style,  with  graceful  illustrations  and  superior 
paper.  The  getting  up  is  sumptuous,  and  the  volume  is  one  of  the  most 
acceptable  for  children's  holiday  gifts  that  we  have  yet  seen." —  City  Item, 
Philadelphia. 

"  The  stories  are  well  constructed,  the  translation  is  good  (much  better 
than  that  given  to  most  of  the  German  theological  treatises  that  come  to 
us  in  an  English  dress),  and  the  material  dress  of  the  book  is  elegant."  — 
Christian  Advocate,  If.  Y. 

THE  PIONEER  BOY, 

And  How  He  Became  President. 

BY  WM.  M.  THAYER, 

Author  of  the  "  Youth's  History  of  the  Rebellion."    12mo.    Illustrated. 
(A  new  edition  in  press.) 


These  books  are  sold  by  booksellers,  or  mailed,  postpaid,  on 
receipt  of  the  price  by  the  publisher. 

HORACE  B.  FULLER, 

14  Bromfleld  Street,  Boston. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  hook  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  btlow. 


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